Italian police. They were trying to go on from there to Italy by hiding in trucks and get on the ferries. And then they were trying to go on from Italy to France — to Calais, where there is another dramatic situation with hundreds of migrants hiding in the bushes and trying to get on another truck for another ferry into Britain.

The refugees set up their lodging with bits of scrap, tin and plastic. There was practically no hygiene and they were deprived of the right to a water supply, electricity or even proper toilets. The estimates were about 1,200 to 1,500 living in the camp in 2009 just before it was destroyed. Exact numbers are difficult to ascertain since the population was constantly moving. Some people haveliving in the fields.

On 12th July 2009 police cleared the camp. Bulldozers moved in around dawn to clear makeshift structures and rubbish that had been piling up in the camp in the western port city of Patras. After all the residents were evacuated a fire swept through the camp and by the afternoon the area had been completely cleared. The source of the blaze is unknown.

Police said they arrested several dozen illegal immigrants. Those who had valid papers were taken to local hotels and 44 underage migrants were sent to a camp near the border with Albania. ‘The illegal immigrants will be dispersed in camps around Greece pending deportation,’ a Patras police spokesman said.

Left-wing parties denounced the ‘military-style’ operation and the ‘barbaric’ conduct of the police, although there