GREECE – Greek authorities on Thursday began bussing hundreds of migrants and refugees to accommodation in other parts of Greece from a port near Athens, where they spent weeks sleeping in the open and tensions flared over phone chargers and food. At least 51,000 refugees and migrants who reached Greece from Turkey and are hoping to travel north to countries like Germany and Austria are stranded in Greece after Balkan countries closed their borders.

Nearly 6,000 people, most from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, were stuck at the port of Piraeus on Thursday, authorities said. Greece’s largest port lies about 12 km from central Athens. By mid-morning, at least four buses departed for the port town of Kyllini in western Greece, some 280 km from Athens, where they will be housed in a former tourist complex. Families began gathering at the dock as more buses were expected to be deployed. Other buses left for the cities of Ioannina and Larissa in northwestern and central Greece.(Reuters)…[+]