Fears incident with police van and injured migrant could trigger violent outbreaks at Idomeni camp (video)

Government priority to clear Idomeni and Piraeus

The serious injury of a Syrian migrant of Kurdish origin, who was reportedly hit by a police van at the Idomeni refugee camp, Monday, has caused tempers to rise among the refugees and migrants at the camp. Despite police claims that it was an accident and that the 40-year old refugee was not run over by the van, the incident led to refugees and migrants to vent their rage by smashing the police vehicle and overturning rubbish bins on the road. There are fears that the incident, along with the overall conditions at Idomeni camp, with the rise of temperatures and the threat of diseases spreading, could spark violent outbreaks within the camp. Despite its ‘humanitarian’ rhetoric of solidarity towards the refugees at the camp, and its promises that it would ‘persuade’ the refugees to relocate to organised hotspots, the Greek government has failed so far to provide liveable conditions for the nearly 54,000 refugees trapped in Greece. The government considers the evacuation of the Idomeni camp, where approximately 10,000 people are living, and that of Piraeus, which hosts another 3,200, to be its top priority. Meanwhile, Minister for Migration Giannis Mouzalas said the the government would set up a register of all the NGOs operating in Greece, adding that NGO funding from the EU would be channeled to only 8 internationally recognised NGOs operating in the country.