A protesting migrant “brandishing” a few-months-old infant threatened policemen who were trying to persuade them to evacuate Piraeus Port and move to refugee centers.
It was a little after noon on Wednesday when migrants demanding the opening of the borders to Europe were protesting at Piraeus Port. An angry man grabbed a baby girl who is only a few months old and threatened to throw her at policemen.
Another man grabbed the infant from his hands and after she passed from several hands ended in the arms of an elderly woman who returned the baby to her mother.
Earlier, around 30 migrants gathered some children around them and sat down on the ground in protest, blocking buses that were there to transfer refugees.
Greek authorities are trying to remove about 5,000 migrants from Greece’s biggest port. The migrants refuse to leave the area because they believe they might end up trapped in a refugee camp. At the same time, most of them still hope that the borders to Europe would open.
Three government officials went to the port on Wednesday in order to inform the refugees and migrants that the conditions there pose a danger to their health and that they should move to safe hospitality centers where food, shelter and necessary comforts will be provided to them.
General Secretaries of Migration Policy Vassilis Papadopoulos, the Interior Tzanetos Philippakos and National Defense John Tafylis advised the refugees not to trust unofficial information that the borders will open. They asked them to move to the safer refugee accommodation centers that are safe because the port doesn’t have the infrastructure to host them.
Migrants, however, said that they want to leave for Germany. “We are not asking for food, or housing or sleep. We only want the borders to open,” one man said to the television cameras.
The general secretary on migration refused to have the press around him and asked reporters and television cameras to leave. “I don’t want to see my picture on television at noon,” he said to protesting journalists and TV crews.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTyH-nCPmJs
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
