A police operation was launched early on Tuesday morning to clear out the railroad tracks at Idomeni, after a group of 200 Afghan refugees occupied it in protest of FYROM’s decision to block them.
Prior to the operation being launched, the area around the tracks was cleared out, with reports suggesting that a television crew member was detained and taken to the local police department for attempting to cover the operation.
According to the police the operation was carried out without any real tension, with the 200 Afghan refugees from the train tracks – and a further 500 who remained at the camp – are to return to Athens.
Since FYROM and Serbia unexpectedly decided to close their borders to Afghan refugees, about 6,000 refugees have gathered on the border at Idomeni, with the camp only able to accommodate 2,000.
Greek authorities have protested this development stressing that the decision to exclude Afghan refugees goes against the decisions made at the recent summit meeting.
Although FYROM is not an EU or Schengen area member, it is in talks with Austria, which has launched talks with western Balkan states and has provocatively not invited Greece. This move has caused frustration within the European Commission, since there was no prior information on Austria’s intentions.
