Migrants return to railway line at Idomeni hours after being removed

Refugees again pitched their tents on the railway line connecting Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) at Idomeni on Monday just hours after police escorted them from the track.

The police operation on Monday morning led to dozens of refugees and migrants packing up their tents and vacating the area. The railway connection had been blocked for a month by refugees who were protesting FYROM’s decision not to let them through.

However, the migrants returned to the track a few hours later, before engineers had a chance to check if it was safe for trains to resume their journeys along the line.

The closure of the line imposed a significant financial burden on companies shipping their goods by train as they had to be re-routed via Bulgaria during the migrants’ protest. The demonstration also affected imports.

On Monday morning, government data suggested that there are 10,323 people at Idomeni.