Greece to 'step up' Idomeni camp evacuation

Greece will "step up" evacuation efforts at the squalid Idomeni border camp "on Tuesday or Wednesday", an official said Monday as police reportedly geared up for a major operation. 

"We will carry out a broader transfer operation as we have 6,000 available places in reception centres," a government source told AFP, adding that the operation would be gradual and that authorities hoped to avoid the use of force. 

"There will be a police presence and we will be persuasive, but we do not foresee pervasive use of force to make all these people leave in one go," the official said, indicating that there are currently 8,400 people at the camp.

Another government source said loudspeakers were already warning camp residents to prepare to leave. 

The migrants will be taken to facilities near the city of Thessaloniki as well as to other areas, officials said.

Over the past two weeks, some 2,500 people had left Idomeni following efforts to persuade them to relocate to more organised camps in the Greek interior, many of them converted former army bases, a police source told AFP.

"In the last two weeks, there has been a 'mild' evacuation effort (through persuasion) that has already seen 2,500 people move out... this will continue," the officer said.

Thousands of migrants fleeing war, persecution and poverty in the Middle East and Asia have found themselves stranded at Idomeni after Macedonia and other Balkan states denied them passage to northern Europe.

They spent a miserable winter in the freezing rain and mud, with aid groups struggling to keep them fed and healthy, prompting several attempts to force their way across the border. 

Last month, some 260 people were injured when Macedonian police fired tear gas in a bid to prevent a large group from storming the border.

Doctors at the scene said rubber bullets were also used, but the Macedonian authorities denied this.

Source: AFP