Feature: Stranded refugees in Greece housed at medieval castle

A fortress of in central Greece has opened its door last Thursday to host guests overnight for the first time for several centuries.

The fortress of Trikala, a city of 80,000 residents, is located some 350 kilometers north of Athens. The castle has been turned into a temporary camp to accommodate 201 refugees and migrants these days.

Greece struggles to find shelters for the 44,000 people stranded in Greece since mid-February after the gradual closing of borders along the Balkan route to central Europe.

According to the latest figures released from the Migration Policy Ministry on Monday, approximately 12,000 refugees and migrants remain at the overcrowded makeshift camp of Idomeni near the crossing on the Greek-Macedonian border, 550 kilometers north of Athens.

Frustrated from the waiting on Monday afternoon about 1,000 of them crossed into FYROM from a stream near the village of Chamilo, five kilometers from Idomeni, Greek news agency AMNA reported.

About 9,000 refugees and migrants are still on the Aegean Sea islands, another 10,000 across the Greek capital and its suburbs, more than 3,000 in the passenger terminals of Piraeus port, 1,000 are scattered at hospitality centers in central Greece.

On average 2,000 refugees per day continue to enter Greece from Turkey, according to the official statistics.

Currently Greece which since early 2015 has become the main gateway into Europe for the more than one million people crossing the Aegean Sea, has the capacity to host 30,000 people at reception centers on the islands and relocation camps and other hospitality facilities in the mainland.

Authorities aim to raise the number to 50,000 by next week, cabinet ministers have said that the government does not intend to use police force to relocate people to organized hosting centers, but will attempt to convince them that this is their best option at the moment.

Some 500 refugees were convinced and moved from Idomeni to camps in northern Greece on Saturday, according to the Migration Policy ministry.

Mohammad A., a refugee who fled the war in Syria, with his family, did not make it to Idomeni.

They were among the 201 people - mostly Syrians, Afghans and a few Iraqis - who were transferred from Piraeus port to Trikala's fortress on Thursday.

The castle's cafe which was under renovation in the winter is not the new home they had in mind when they started the journey to northern Europe a few months ago, but is certainly better than the fully packed passenger terminals at Piraeus.

The local community at Trikala, municipal authorities and some 185 volunteers, welcomed the refugees to make sure that they will have a warm place to stay, meals and medical care until a former military camp at the outskirts of the city of Larissa, 60 kilometers east of Trikala, is transformed into a hospitality center to accommodate them.

Meanwhile, under the shadow of the castle's towers the Greek Army provides food servings, as local scouts are organizing fun games for the refugee children to help them forget for a while the difficulties of the long journey.

It is not the first time that Greek authorities house refugees inside historic landmarks.

In the island of Kos last year the Central Archaeologists Council allowed the temporary accommodation of some 300 people inside the strictly protected zone of the Roman Odeon in tents set up by the NGO Doctors without Borders.

For Dimitris Athanassoulis, head of the Ephorate of Antiquities in Cyclades islands, and his colleagues, there should not be any distinction made between the protection of human lives and the preservation of monuments.

Greek archaeologists also noted that, in the early 20th century when thousands of Greeks fled their homes in Turkey due to war, authorities had given the green light for the accommodation of refugees at archaeological sites for humanitarian reasons.

In 1922 refugees had set up tents next to the 5th century BC temple of Hephaestus under the Acropolis hill in Athens in Thisseion district, as well as inside the 4th century AD Rotunda church in the city of Thessaloniki in northern Greece. Endit