After the Greek-Macedonian border closed to refugees in March 2015, more than ten thousands people started to pile up near the Greek border town of Idomeni, waiting in front of the double razor fence in the hope to make it through. In vain. In the makeshift camp, everything was scarce: shelters, food, medicines, basic hygienic facilities. Queuing for hours became the norm and the camp was regularly flooded with mud. Week after week, life in the camp organised: shelters developed, international NGOs and independent volunteers settled as well as locals who saw in this settlement a possibility for additional income. When the camp was forcibly evicted at the end of May, refugees were sent to different locations across Greece. But if the road is officially closed, it isn't for everyone: those physically and financially capable continue to cross using people smugglers' networks. To date, dozens of thousands of refugees are still waiting in Greece, while the promised EU relocation scheme proved to be largely inefficient.
