At the Tai Kwan Do Olympic Stadium in Athens today there are long queues of people returned by coach from the Macedonian border.
We met a group of young Moroccan men and some guys claiming to be Somali but who we think were Nigerian or Ghanaian. "We're economic migrants, we're in search of a better life, who wouldn't be" one said "and we don't mind where we end up. We'd like to go to Sweden or Norway maybe". One man said he'd made it into Macedonia but was arrested and beaten by the police there and returned to Greece.
We were told there are about 1500 people there, mostly Moroccans, Pakistanis, Iranians, Somalis and Nigerians. There were no Syrians, Iraqis or Afghans, who are being treated separately as refugees.
Inside the stadium people are being offered food and medical care but everyone talked of the appalling sanitary conditions. Riot police were on standby but there were no signs of trouble yet and a huddle of international journalists were keeping a close eye on the situation from the gates.
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