Reuters, Greece :
Greek police started moving migrants and refugees out of a sprawling tent camp on the sealed northern border with Macedonia on Tuesday where thousands have been stranded for months trying to get into western Europe.
Reuters witnesses saw several bus loads of migrants leaving the makeshift camp of Idomeni early on Tuesday morning, with about another dozen buses lined up. It appeared to be mainly families who were on the move.
Greek authorities said they planned to move individuals gradually to state-supervised facilities further south in an operation expected to last several days.
“The evacuation is progressing without any problem,” said Giorgos Kyritsis, a government spokesman for the migrant crisis. A Reuters witness on the Macedonian side of the border said there was a heavy police presence in the area but no problems were reported as people with young children packed up huge bags with their belongings.
Media on the Greek side of the border were kept at a distance and a group of people dressed as clowns waved balloon hearts and animals as the buses drove past.
“Those who pack their belongings will leave, because we want this issue over with. Ideally by the end of the week. We haven’t put a strict deadline on it, but more or less that is what we estimate,” Kyritsis told Reuters.
At the latest tally, 8,199 people were camped at Idomeni after a cascade of border shutdowns throughout the Balkans in February barred migrants and refugees from central and northern Europe. More than 12,000 lived in the camp at one point.
The International Rescue Committee’s country director, Panos Navrozidis, said that on-site pre-registration had proved a good incentive for refugees to leave Idomeni although the asylum process remained “inadequate and slow”.
Railway tracks between Greece and Macedonia have been blocked by migrants for weeks, forcing trains to switch routes through Bulgaria further to the east. Some goods wagons have been stranded on the tracks for weeks.
The Greek-Macedonia border was closed in March.
Since then at least 8,400 people – many of them women and children – have remained stranded in the border area, having been prevented from continuing their journey to northern Europe.
A police helicopter has been circling overhead and we have seen riot police heading to the camp. But so far the situation appears calm and residents are leaving voluntarily. More than 10 buses have left with families on board.
Only journalists from Greek national television are being allowed to film the clearance operation. Others are being kept back at a roadblock along with some aid workers and a group of children’s entertainers who used to organise activities at the camp. When the buses pass us, clowns jump up and down and dance at little refugee children who wave back.
Last week when we visited Idomeni camp, many expected this clearance operation. But they were reluctant to leave their location by the border gate with Macedonia, even though it has remained firmly closed since March.
Many of the migrants are from conflict zones in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. They have been living in tents with little food to eat.
One Syrian, Rezan, who has been at the camp since early March, said that despite the poor conditions he did not want to leave – although he would if he had to.
“I prepared my bags. If they didn’t use force, I will stay for a while, but if they use force, I didn’t come here to fight anybody. I will just go. I escaped from Syria because I don’t want to fight anybody,” he told the BBC.
Stelios Kouloglou, of Greece’s governing Syriza Party, told the BBC that the migrants needed to know there was no “short-term solution” to their situation, and they would be better off at what he called “hospitality centres”.
Idomeni, he said, had become a “humanitarian and also social disaster”, not only with “the problem of the health and the miserable conditions” but also of the emergence of gangs.
Giorgos Christides, a journalist at the camp for the German magazine Der Spiegel, told the BBC that police were determined to clear one part of the camp on Tuesday.
They plan to complete the operation within 10 days, he added.
Also on Monday, police were reported to have started removing about 2,000 people who have been blocking the rail track on the border.
Migrants have blocked the tracks for more than a month, forcing trains to re-route further east through Bulgaria.
Macedonia closed its border with Greece to migrants in March after Austria announced it was tightening its own controls.
Since then, other Balkan countries have closed their own borders.
More than a million undocumented refugees and other migrants have entered the EU by boat from Turkey to Greece since early last year, generating an unprecedented crisis for the EU’s 28 member states.
Greek police started moving migrants and refugees out of a sprawling tent camp on the sealed northern border with Macedonia on Tuesday where thousands have been stranded for months trying to get into western Europe.
Reuters witnesses saw several bus loads of migrants leaving the makeshift camp of Idomeni early on Tuesday morning, with about another dozen buses lined up. It appeared to be mainly families who were on the move.
Greek authorities said they planned to move individuals gradually to state-supervised facilities further south in an operation expected to last several days.
“The evacuation is progressing without any problem,” said Giorgos Kyritsis, a government spokesman for the migrant crisis. A Reuters witness on the Macedonian side of the border said there was a heavy police presence in the area but no problems were reported as people with young children packed up huge bags with their belongings.
Media on the Greek side of the border were kept at a distance and a group of people dressed as clowns waved balloon hearts and animals as the buses drove past.
“Those who pack their belongings will leave, because we want this issue over with. Ideally by the end of the week. We haven’t put a strict deadline on it, but more or less that is what we estimate,” Kyritsis told Reuters.
At the latest tally, 8,199 people were camped at Idomeni after a cascade of border shutdowns throughout the Balkans in February barred migrants and refugees from central and northern Europe. More than 12,000 lived in the camp at one point.
The International Rescue Committee’s country director, Panos Navrozidis, said that on-site pre-registration had proved a good incentive for refugees to leave Idomeni although the asylum process remained “inadequate and slow”.
Railway tracks between Greece and Macedonia have been blocked by migrants for weeks, forcing trains to switch routes through Bulgaria further to the east. Some goods wagons have been stranded on the tracks for weeks.
The Greek-Macedonia border was closed in March.
Since then at least 8,400 people – many of them women and children – have remained stranded in the border area, having been prevented from continuing their journey to northern Europe.
A police helicopter has been circling overhead and we have seen riot police heading to the camp. But so far the situation appears calm and residents are leaving voluntarily. More than 10 buses have left with families on board.
Only journalists from Greek national television are being allowed to film the clearance operation. Others are being kept back at a roadblock along with some aid workers and a group of children’s entertainers who used to organise activities at the camp. When the buses pass us, clowns jump up and down and dance at little refugee children who wave back.
Last week when we visited Idomeni camp, many expected this clearance operation. But they were reluctant to leave their location by the border gate with Macedonia, even though it has remained firmly closed since March.
Many of the migrants are from conflict zones in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. They have been living in tents with little food to eat.
One Syrian, Rezan, who has been at the camp since early March, said that despite the poor conditions he did not want to leave – although he would if he had to.
“I prepared my bags. If they didn’t use force, I will stay for a while, but if they use force, I didn’t come here to fight anybody. I will just go. I escaped from Syria because I don’t want to fight anybody,” he told the BBC.
Stelios Kouloglou, of Greece’s governing Syriza Party, told the BBC that the migrants needed to know there was no “short-term solution” to their situation, and they would be better off at what he called “hospitality centres”.
Idomeni, he said, had become a “humanitarian and also social disaster”, not only with “the problem of the health and the miserable conditions” but also of the emergence of gangs.
Giorgos Christides, a journalist at the camp for the German magazine Der Spiegel, told the BBC that police were determined to clear one part of the camp on Tuesday.
They plan to complete the operation within 10 days, he added.
Also on Monday, police were reported to have started removing about 2,000 people who have been blocking the rail track on the border.
Migrants have blocked the tracks for more than a month, forcing trains to re-route further east through Bulgaria.
Macedonia closed its border with Greece to migrants in March after Austria announced it was tightening its own controls.
Since then, other Balkan countries have closed their own borders.
More than a million undocumented refugees and other migrants have entered the EU by boat from Turkey to Greece since early last year, generating an unprecedented crisis for the EU’s 28 member states.
