Idomeni: Shattered dreams and new horizons

A refugee walks through a field at sunset, a day before the makeshift camp for refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border is to be evacuated. At its height, more than 12,000 people were crammed into Idomeni, a camp originally opened by aid groups last year to accommodate 2,500 people.

A refugee boy sits in a bus waiting to be transferred to a hospitality center. In an operation that began shortly after sunrise, refugees were being moved to newly opened camps near Thessaloniki, a city about 80 kilometers to the south of Idomeni.

A refugee boy in a wheelchair passes in front of riot policemen. By midday Tuesday, 23 buses carrying some 1,110 people had left Idomeni. Meanwhile, earth-moving machinery is being used to clear abandoned tents. No violence has been reported so far.

Refugees and migrants board buses to be transferred to government camps. Earlier on Monday, Giorgos Kyritsis, Greek government’s migration spokesman, said the operation to clear all 8,400 people living in the Idomeni camp would take at least 10 days.

Police stand next to an armored vehicle parked on a railway track during the operation to evacuate the makeshift camp. According to representatives of Doctors Without Borders, the operation is proceeding "very smoothly". Journalists are barred during the evacuation operation. An estimated 700 police are participating in the operation.

A group of men run through a field to avoid being transferred to government camps. Over the past two weeks, Greek officials have managed to convince some 2,500 people to leave Idomeni voluntarily. But many are wary of relocating to organized camps away from the border because it could be harder to find smuggling contacts.

People walk past tents at a train station in Idomeni. Greek authorities are also eager to reopen this railway line – the country's main freight line to the Balkans - that runs through the camp and had been blocked by protesting camp residents since March 20.

Officials have said that 6,000 spots are available at reception centers and that most of the migrants are to be moved to camps at former industrial facilities near Thessaloniki. Many of the camp's residents are women and children desperate to be reunited with male relatives who, with the aid of human smugglers, have forged ahead on their own.