Police ordered to remove political asylum applicants’ ‘tent city’

Riot police pushed back scores of foreign nationals — mostly Palestinians, Iranians and Afghans requesting political asylum — on Monday outside the UN Refugee Agency offices in the Athens district of Paleo Psychico.

Some 100 individuals, including women and minors, have pitched tents outside the UN Refugee Agency headquarters for the past three months to protest what they claim is the lack of operation by political asylum committees.

Riot police as well as a municipality crane arrived in the area just after dawn to remove the tents. A prosecutor was also present during the operation. The latter ordered the forced transport of migrants who stitched their mouths with thread to a local hospital order to remove the stitches.