The Guardian –Greek authorities have begun an operation to evacuate the country’s largest informal refugee camp of Idomeni.
The operation began at dawn on Tuesday and journalists were barred from the area. Government and police officials have said the people in Idomeni will be moved gradually to newly completed, organised camps.
Idomeni is located on the Greek-FYROM border, where more than an estimated 8,400 people have been living for months.
The government’s spokesman for the refugee crisis, Giorgos Kyritsis, said police would not use force.
The camp sprang up on what began as an informal pedestrian border crossing for refugees and migrants heading north to Europe, is home to an estimated 8,400 people. Greek police and government authorities have said the residents will be moved gradually to newly completed, organised camps.
Journalists were barred from the camp, stopped at a police roadblock a few miles away on a highway junction leading to the nearby village of Idomeni. Twenty buses carrying various riot police units were seen heading to the area while a police helicopter observed from above.
The government has been trying to persuade people staying in Idomeni, who include hundreds of families with young children, to leave the area and head to organised camps. This week it said its campaign of voluntary evacuations was already working, with police reporting that eight buses carrying about 400 people left Idomeni on Sunday. Others took taxis heading to the country’s main northern city of Thessaloniki or a nearby town of Polycastro.
