Author: Emma Waliis | infomigrants.net | 4 November 2019
Small-scale protests continued in northern Greece over the weekend against the transfer of migrants from the islands to the mainland. The Greek government is intending to transfer 20,000 migrants from the islands by the end of the year.
Inhabitants of two towns in northern Greece took to the streets Sunday to rally against the transfer of migrants from the Greek islands to the towns of Yannitsa and Serres.
"They should leave. We have had enough," said one protestor in Yannitsa, not far from Thessaloniki, to the Greek broadcaster Skai.
The demonstrators were angry that the authorities were attempting to transfer a group of 60 migrants from the islands of Lesbos and Samos to centers near Yannitsa. Some of the protestors hid their faces behind balaclavas or scarves tied just under their eyes. Many carried Greek flags, some emblazoned with the virgin sun which is the symbol of the northern Greek region Macedonia, of which Thessaloniki is the region’s capital.
According to one report of the protest, there were only about 100 protestors in the town of Yannitsa, with the counter-demonstration numbering a few more.