Migrants living in the Idomeni camp near the Greece-Macedonia border were reportedly evacuated on Tuesday in a peaceful manner. At least 400 riot police had been deployed in the area to conduct the evacuation process.
As many as 8,000 refugees are being taken to Thessaloniki, where processing facilities have been specially designed to house them, and distribute them among various European countries, the Guardian reported. The Greece-Macedonia border was closed in March after which the refugees started camping in Idomeni, according to BBC.
The operation would begin in the morning and no force would be used to disperse the residents, George Kyritsis, a Greek government spokesman, was quoted by CNN as saying in a live television interview on Greek TV station Skai.
"It is still early in the morning, people in Idomeni are waking up and packing their stuff to get on buses waiting to transfer them to organised facilities," he said.
At least 2,500 people have been moved and 8,000 remained to be moved at dawn on Tuesday, Kyritsis was quoted as saying by CNN. He said housing for 6,000 people was ready.
The living conditions in the Idomeni camp were dire, according to the United Nations. Many of the residents were suffering respiratory problems, the U.N. refugee agency had said in March.
An agreement made in 2015 to distribute refugees among European nations has not been affective so far as 50,000 refugees are still languishing in parts of Greece without being processed.
