Minister visits temporary migrant shelter in Athens

Alternate Minister for Migration Policy Yiannis Mouzalas on Thursday visited the Tae Kwon Do Stadium facilities in Faliro, southern Athens, where hundreds of migrants were being hosted temporarily.

The stadium was one of the facilities sheltering migrants who were removed from Idomeni, near the border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) on Wednesday.

About 2,300 migrants who were not from Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria and had been refused entry to FYROM, were rounded up by police forces and put on buses to Athens on Wednesday.

Speaking to local media on Thursday, Mouzalas said the migrants would remain at the stadium until December 17, before being moved to another venue.

The minister admitted the facilities were not ideal, but that the alternative would be to “sleep in the fields.”

Meanwhile, about 4,500 refugees were expected to arrive on Thursday at Pireaus port from Lesvos, Chios and Samos.