With over 20,000 registered migrants living in Athens and most of them living in makeshift accommodation, including the site of the old international airport, Greek authorities are now considering moving many of them to areas in the Peloponnese.
It is estimated that about 1,500 migrants currently located in Piraeus will be the first to be moved as Regional Governor Petros Tatoulis and the Defence Ministry are in talks to make available disused military facilities to accommodate them.
Although the number of illegal immigrants and refugees coming over from Turkey have decreased significantly, the numbers are still substantial for a country like Greece- still grappling with its own economic woes and infrastructural incapacity to deal with the refugee crisis.
According to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), 67,415 migrants arrived in Greece from Turkey in January, 57,066 in February, dropping to 26,971 in March, then plunging to 3,650 in April, 1,721 in May and 1,488 in June.
