Around 300 officers were taking part in the operation to relocate a total of some 4.000 refugees and migrants from the makeshift camps into state-run facilities.
The first evacuation began at a camp that had been formed close to a gas station on the national highway, near Polykastro. Some 1.828 migrants had been living there.
During the evacuation, only state media ERT and ANA-MPA were allowed to report. All other journalists and photoreporters were banned from the area.
The operation is to continue on Tuesday, focusing on another camp close to a different gas station near the exit from the national highway for Evzonoi. Some 1.936 migrants are living there.
Meanwhile, Alternate Defense Minister Dimitris Vitsas has announced on Friday the government’s intention to create 12 additional camps in central Greece and to reconstruct shelters at Koutsohero in Larissa, Katsika in Ioannina and Ritsona in Evia, where refugees live in poor conditions.
Last week, Afghan families at Malakasa camp demonstrated because of the extremely poor quality of the food -a common complaint at centers throughout Greece; refugees and migrants are usually served boiled potatoes with some sauce. Also, at Malakasa, according to reports, there is just one bathroom for 1.300 women at the camp.
The latest official estimate puts the number of refugees and migrants, registered during the latest refugee flows towards Europe, throughout Greece at approximately 57.112.
Of this number 5.509 are staying at shelters and structures managed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 8.197 are on islands in the eastern Aegean and 14.830 are in Attica – with the port of Piraeus providing temporary shelter to 1.397 while there are more than 3.600 refugees at the three shelters in Elliniko and 3.000 at Skaramanga. The government has already announced that the next priority is to evacuate Elliniko and Piraeus port. In central Greece, there are 2.155, 283 in southern Greece and 26.139 in northern Greece (Macedonia and Epirus).