Press. voanews.com
Greek
authorities picked up about 70 migrants, including children, in a snowy forest
near the northern city of Thessaloniki on Wednesday, as smugglers turned to
previously popular routes into the European Union rather than the sea crossing
from Turkey. Members of the group, who said they were from Syria, told Greek
police they had crossed the Evros River on the Greek-Turkish border in dinghies
and were then brought to Thessaloniki hidden in a truck.
The truck
driver left them in the forest late Tuesday, and they spent the night there in
the snow, authorities said. Police are searching for the driver. Temperatures
have plunged below freezing in the past two days across many parts of the
country, with nighttime snowfall in the mountains and northern areas. “We stayed all night in the forest. It was
very cold and it was snowing,” 22-year-old Syrian Omar Abdi Aziz told The
Associated Press by telephone.
“We are
very tired,” he said, adding they had been walking for more than three days as
part of their journey out of Turkey. Aziz was trying to get to Sweden, where
other members of his family are living. Under a European Union-Turkey deal
reached in March, migrants and refugees arriving on Greek islands from Turkey
face deportation back to Turkey. However, the deal doesn't extend to those
crossing the two countries' land border.
The Evros
region has seen a significant increase in people crossing illegally in recent
months. Police figures show 11 smugglers and 291 migrants were detained in the
area in September, while 22 smugglers and 655 migrants were caught in October.
More than
62,000 migrants and refugees are stranded in Greece, many living in overcrowded
refugee camps set up across the country. Aid groups have long complained of the
conditions in the camps — some of which still consist of tents, set up out in
the open or inside warehouses and buildings.
Last week
a woman and a child died and several others were injured in a fire that swept
through a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. The fire apparently was started
accidentally by a cooking gas canister being used in one of the tents.