Galery

1

After a 9-hour trip from Idomeni on the Greek-Macedonian border the 44 buses carrying 2,300 migrants arrived in Athens. The majority of them are from Pakistan, Somalia, Morocco, Algeria and Bangladesh - countries whose nationals are not allowed on the territory of Macedonia.

The buses arrived at the Olympic sports hall in the neighbourhood of Palaio Faliro, where it was planned to accommodate the migrants. However, the majority of them preferred not to take advantage of the shelter and food provided for them by the municipal authorities and left the area on foot, setting off to the centre of Athens.

A little later Minister for Migration Yiannis Mouzalas visited the migrants and pointed out that the Greek state would support migrants but would not allow the establishment of spontaneous tent camps such as the one in Victoria Square about a month ago.

At the same time, the number of refugees and migrants arriving in the Greek capital is constantly increasing. Early in the morning the ferry "Blue Star 1" arrived at Piraeus port, transporting 1,330 people from the islands of Lesbos and Chios, and the ferry "Nissos Rodos" brought 1,372 refugees and migrants from Lesbos, Chios and Samos. The ferry "Eleftherios Venizelos" will arrive later today with another 1,771 refugees and migrants from Lesbos.

The Greek media indicate that those migrants who have returned from Idomeni are creating an entirely new problem for the Greek authorities. The reason is that they are representatives of those nationalities that are not allowed to go to other European countries and therefore it is expected that they will stay in Greece for a long period of time.

Many of them do not have money, which is raising questions about their maintenance, especially if they decide to apply for asylum in Greece.