Police turn away migrants from Athens square
Police are patrolling a square in central Athens to prevent migrants from setting up camp there after the site was cleared at the weekend.
Hundreds of people, mostly from Afghanistan, had been sleeping rough at Victoria Square in the center of Athens since border restrictions and closures were imposed by Austria and several Balkan countries last month.
Early Monday police were instructing those reaching the square to seek refuge at one of several shelters set up around the capital, while municipal workers were cleaning the area, using pressure hoses.
Refugees and other migrants have continued to travel to Greece from nearby Turkey despite the border closures, with 2,480 arriving Sunday, according to the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.
Some 34,000 migrants are currently stranded in Greece – with about a third of that number camped out in increasingly difficult conditions at the Greek border with Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). [AP]
