Police in Athens on Thursday removed over 260 migrants, including dozens of children, from two squats in the city centre as part of a law-and-order drive by the new conservative government. Overall 269 people, including nearly 100 minors, were removed and taken to the police headquarters for identification, the police said in a statement. State TV ERT showed the migrants boarding buses, some of them clutching plastic bags with their belongings.

The two abandoned buildings had been occupied since 2016, the police said. The crackdown has been opposed by anti-establishment and rights groups who say the operations unfairly target migrant families, who would otherwise be homeless, and the solidarity groups that support them. Thousands of anti-establishment protesters marched in Athens on Saturday in a demonstration against the squat evacuations.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019