First ferry with 635 migrants reaches Thessaloniki

About 1,500 asylum-seekers were being transported from Greece's eastern Aegean island of Lesvos to the mainland Monday as part of government efforts to tackle massive overcrowding in refugee camps and a recent spike in the number of people arriving from the nearby Turkish coast.

A ship carrying 635 people, mostly Afghan families, from Lesvos reached the northern port city of Thessaloniki Monday evening. From there, authorities said, the asylum-seekers were being bussed to a camp in Nea Kavala in northern Greece that already holds another 1,000 Syrian migrants.

Abdul Tamim Azimi, 24, from Afghanistan said he spent nine dire months in Moria with his parents and two siblings, and was looking forward to the new camp.

"The situation was very bad," he told The Associated Press. "Every day there were fights among the people living there. For food, for water, for...