2,000 gone from Greek camp

So far, migrant evacuation at border running smoothly

Greek police secure the passage of a bus carrying migrants evacuated from a makeshift camp in Idomeni, Greece, on Tuesday.
Greek police secure the passage of a bus carrying migrants evacuated from a makeshift camp in Idomeni, Greece, on Tuesday.

IDOMENI, Greece -- Greek authorities on Tuesday began the evacuation of a refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian border, persuading about 2,000 people to leave the Idomeni site for other organized facilities in northern Greece.

photo

AP/ANA-MPA

Greek police approach migrants’ tents Tuesday at a camp at Idomeni on the Greek-Macedonian border as the migrants are moved into facilities in northern Greece. Authorities said force will not be used and they expect to get everyone moved in a week to 10 days. The camp has been home to thousands of people trying to get to wealthier European nations.

An estimated 700 police were participating in the operation. There were no reports of violence or protests.

Greece's government has pledged that no force will be used, and said the operation is expected to last between a week and 10 days. Journalists were blocked from entering the camp.

The refugees and other migrants were placed on buses and taken to newly built shelters set up by the army and area authorities as the government promised to clear the site of the remaining 6,000 people over the coming week.

Vicky Markolefa, a representative of the Doctors Without Borders charity, said the operation was proceeding "very smoothly" and without incident. "We hope it will continue like that," she said.

The camp, which sprang up at an informal pedestrian border crossing for refugees and migrants heading north to wealthier European nations, was home to an estimated 8,400 people -- including hundreds of children -- mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

At its peak, when Macedonia shut its border in March, the camp housed more than 14,000, but numbers have declined as people began accepting authorities' offers of alternative places to stay.

In Geneva, the spokesman for the United Nations' refugee agency, Adrian Edwards, said the evacuation appeared to be taking place "calmly," and the agency was sending more staff members to Idomeni.

"As long as the movement of people from Idomeni is ... voluntary in nature [and] that we're not seeing use of force, then we don't have particular concerns about that," he said.

"It often does help to move people into more organized sites, when they're willing to move to those places," he added.

In Idomeni, most have been living in small camping tents pitched in fields and along railroad tracks, while aid agencies have set up large marquee-style tents to help house people. Greek authorities have sent in cleaning crews regularly and have provided portable toilets, but conditions have been precarious at best, with heavy rain creating muddy ponds.

Recently the camp had begun taking on an image of semipermanence, with refugees setting up small makeshift shops selling everything from cooking utensils to falafel and bread.

More than 54,000 people have been trapped in financially struggling Greece since countries farther north shut their land borders to the flow of people escaping war and poverty at home. Nearly 1 million people have passed through Greece, the vast majority arriving on islands from the nearby Turkish coast.

In March, the European Union reached an agreement with Turkey meant to stem the flow and reduce the number of people undertaking the perilous sea crossing to Greece, where many have died when their overcrowded, unseaworthy boats sank. Under the deal, people arriving clandestinely on Greek islands from the Turkish coast after March 18 face deportation to Turkey unless they gain asylum in Greece.

But few want to request asylum in the country, which has been struggling with a six-year financial crisis that has left unemployment hovering around 24 percent.

Greek authorities also are eager to reopen a railway line -- the country's main freight line to the Balkans -- that runs through the camp and has been blocked by protesting camp residents since March 20.

Anastassios Saxpelidis, a spokesman for Greek transport companies, said Tuesday that the 66-day closure has cost transporters about $6.7 million.

Giorgos Kyritsis, a government spokesman on immigration, said the line should open "in coming days."

The government has been trying for months to persuade people to leave Idomeni and go to organized camps. It said this week that its campaign of voluntary evacuations was already working, with police reporting Sunday that eight buses carrying about 400 people had left Idomeni. Others took taxis heading to Thessaloniki or the nearby town of Polycastro.

On the eve of the evacuation operation, few at the camp appeared to welcome the news.

"It's not good ... because we've already been here for three months and we'll have to spend at least another six in the camps before relocation," Hind Al Mkawi, 38, a refugee from Damascus, said Monday evening.

Abdo Rajab, 22, from Raqqa in Syria, has spent the past three months in Idomeni, and is considering paying smugglers to be sneaked into Germany.

"We hear that tomorrow we will all go to camps," he said. "I don't mind, but my aim is not reach the camps but to go Germany."

A Section on 05/25/2016

Upcoming Events