The makeshift refugee / migrant camp at Idomeni was finally cleared of its last occupants on Thursday evening, according to Greek authorities, two days after an operation to transfer the roughly 5,000 foreign nationals began.


The camp, erected directly on the border with the former Yugoslav Republic (fYRoM) where a rail line connects the two countries, mushroomed in size after the Skopje government closed its borders in February to Mideast refugees and would-be migrants attempting to reach preferred destinations in central and western Europe.

The foreign nationals, mostly from the Middle East, but also irregular migrants that snuck into the country amid the refugee flows from Turkey, were transferred to temporary but organized shelters across northern Greece.

The Greek government attracted its share of negative publicity this week after preventing all but the state-run broadcaster from covering the initial stage of the evacuation, which was backed up with riot police.

A two-month occupation of the train tracks by protesting refugees cost shippers upwards of six million euros.