Authorities scramble to shelter refugees as weather turns

Authorities have been scrambling to find temporary accommodation for hundreds of migrants and refugees camping in the capital’s squares and parks following a sudden worsening of the weather on Monday.

Dozens of people who had been sleeping rough in central Victoria Square, before seeking refuge in the nearby ISAP electric railway station on Monday night, were taken to the Tae Kwon Do Stadium in Palaio Faliro on Athens’s southern coast.

Another group of the migrants were transferred to a temporary camp set up at Elaionas near the city center over the summer to house refugees.

In comments on Tuesday, the mayor of Palaio Faliro, Dionysis Hatzidakis, said some 200 refugees had been housed at the Tae Kwon Do Stadium.

He said Yiannis Mouzalas, the caretaker minister for immigration policy, had asked him for the stadium to serve as temporary housing for three or four days until a permanent solution is found.

The World Wrestling Championships are scheduled to begin at the stadium on October 13 so a new venue must be found by then, Hatzidakis said.

Local and regional authorities were to coordinate the distribution of milk and bread to the people in the stadium, he added.