Greece empties refugee camp as arrivals slow down
Greece has started evacuating refugees from a major border camp as the country starts to see near-zero arrivals as a result of a deal between the European Union and Turkey.
Greek officials said on Saturday that eight buses had transported about 400 refugees from the Idomeni camp on the Macedonia border while dozen more buses were waiting for refugees so far reluctant to leave the camp.
Giorgos Kyritsis, the spokesman for the agency responsible for evacuations, said emptying Idomeni will intensify from Monday.
“More than 2,000 places can be found immediately for the refugees that are at the Idomeni camp and from Monday on this number can double,” Kyritsis said.
A total of 11,603 people remained at the Idomeni on Saturday, amid reports that the huge tide of refugees flooding into Greece has begun to slow. Official estimates showed that only 78 people arrived in Greece earlier in the day, down from 161 on Friday. This comes as the arrivals were numbered in thousands before a deal between the EU and Turkey on sending back refugees came into effect last Sunday.
Kyritsis said Greece will create 30,000 more places for refugees in new shelters in the next three weeks. However, the situation in Idomeni was desperate with some people still hoping to get a relief and continue their trip toward Western Europe. One tent bore the slogan, “Help us, open the border.”
More than a million, most of them taking the sea route between Turkey and Greece, crossed into Europe in 2015, creating the worst refugee crisis for the continent in decades. That prompted EU officials to reach a multi-billion-dollar deal with Turkey whereby Ankara takes back all refugees coming to Greece in return for billions of dollars in aid and acceleration in talks for its long-sought EU membership.
Major international organizations, including the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, have slammed the deal, saying it violates the rights of refugees.
Athens has used the relative calm on its border to establish centers for deportation of refugees. Some 4,000 security personnel and asylum experts have been deployed by the government while refugees are being transported to registration centers set up on five Aegean islands.
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