Reuters, Domeni :Greece has sent in police and bulldozers to clear out Europe’s biggest refugee camp because of the deteriorating humanitarian conditions there, but the operation should also unblock a vital artery for the ailing economy.Greece lies at the epicentre of two of the biggest challenges facing Europe – a migration influx and a debt crisis.The Idomeni camp, recently home to as many as 8,000 migrants and refugees, had spread out across a railway track on the Macedonian border, choking off Greece’s main rail route to the rest of Europe. It has also complicated the privatisation of the country’s rail freight business, a condition of its international bailout.Greek authorities said 2,031 refugees were removed from the makeshift camp on Tuesday and the rail tracks were fully cleared on Wednesday. But they have not said when the train link, which is vital to the freight firm TRAINOSE, will reopen.”This should have happened a long time ago,” said Anastasios Sachpelidis, a local transporters’ association representative. The closure was “a big loss,” he said. “We lost clients, we lost money, time and our credibility.”Heavily indebted Greece clinched a deal with international lenders in the early hours of Wednesday to unlock desperately needed new bailout loans on the condition it fulfils certain terms, including speeding up privatisations.Athens has agreed to sell off an array of assets, including TRAINOSE and its maintenance company ROSCO. The deadline for potential investors to submit final bids was originally in April, but has been pushed back twice, and is now set for June 22.
