Greece sent in police and bulldozers on Tuesday to knock down the squalid makeshift tents on the border with Macedonia, where several thousand migrants had taken refuge.
Several busloads of people, most of them families with children, left the sprawling expanse of tents at Idomeni to move to state-run centres further south. Buses were lined up ready to take more, witnesses told Reuters.
At least 8,000 people were moved to state-run centres at Idomeni in difficult, overcrowded conditions with poor sanitation.
After the Balkan countries shut their borders to migrants – at least 12,000 of them, including mostly Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis - Greece was the main entry point.
At least a million migrants made it to Europe in 2015, even though around 54,000 migrants are still stuck in Greece.
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The evacuation is progressing without any problem...(they would be relocated)ideally by the end of the week. We haven’t put a strict deadline on it.Giorgos Kyritsis, Government Spokesperson
A Reuters witness on the Macedonian side of the border said there was a heavy police presence in the area, but no problems were reported.
(With inputs from Reuters.)
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