Roundup: Greece accelerates efforts to move refugees to shelters, paves way for returns to Turkey

The Greek authorities stepped up efforts on Thursday to move thousands of refugees stranded in the country from squalid informal camps at Piraeus port and the Idomeni crossing at the borders with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to organized shelters.

In parallel, the government submitted to parliament a draft bill on the handling of the refugee crisis that paves the way for the start of readmissions to Turkey next Monday under the agreement Ankara sealed with the EU two weeks ago.

"Refugees must leave Idomeni and Piraeus," the Greek prime minister tweeted on Thursday, as migration policy ministry officials, Greek Coast Guard officers and NGO volunteers tried to persuade people to get on buses transferring them to organized hospitality centers.

About 50,000 refugees and migrants have been stranded in Greece since mid-February after the border closures along the Balkan route to central Europe.

While more than half of the people at present are accommodated in facilities set up by the Greek state, some 11,500 remain in a tent city at Idomeni and 5,500 at Piraeus port, sleeping in the open and difficult conditions and hoping they will be the first to cross the border into the FYROM if it reopens.

The Greek authorities, as well as the FYROM government and European officials, have repeatedly stressed that the official EU relocation program is the only option on the table.

However, several desperate refugees are reluctant to move and remain in informal camps.

According to the Coast Guard, approximately 500 refugees agreed to go from Piraeus to two newly-established centers in western Greece, while another facility in Athens will be ready to accommodate an additional 700 people.

"This situation cannot continue. People are tired, frustrated, and anxious about their future and tensions are high," Piraeus Mayor Yannis Moralis said when speaking to Greek news agency AMNA on Thursday during a visit to the overcrowded passenger terminals where several people have found temporary shelters.

Moralis noted that scuffles broke out more often lately among refugees over food, a mobile phone charger or due to the harassment of a woman.

The Greek authorities are also finalizing details to clear the way to return refugees to Turkey next Monday.

Under the recent deal, about 5,000 refugees, who arrived in Greece from Turkey after March 20 and are currently held in hotspots on the Greek islands, will be sent back to Turkey once their asylum claims have been processed.

The returns are set to begin on April 4 and all sides are rushing to resolve the last pending issues regarding the pace of readmissions and the procedures.

Athens complains that most of the support personnel EU partners pledged to dispatch to Greece to assist in the refugee registration and handle application requests have still not arrived.

On the other hand, new arrivals of refugees from Turkey have increased in the past two days as the weather conditions in the Aegean Sea improved. Last week, the number of people landing on Greece's shores had dropped to a few dozen per day. On Thursday, the Greek Coast Guard recorded about 400 new arrivals.

The number is still low compared to the 1,500 refugees on average reaching Greece on a daily basis until a few weeks ago, but Greek officials appear concerned by the trend.

The Greek prime minister and cabinet ministers have openly expressed doubts over the full implementation of the deal by the Turkish side.

On its part, the Greek government formally tabled on Thursday a draft bill on refugees and asylum process which incorporates into Greek legislation a revised EU directive on asylum seekers to facilitate the implementation of the EU-Turkey deal.

The draft law includes provisions for the simplification of asylum procedures and the strengthening of the asylum service with more personnel so that asylum claims can be processed within two weeks.

Greece has been criticized in recent years for severe deficiencies in the asylum process that lasts several months and prevents refugees from seeking asylum in the country. Endit