THESSALONIKI — The 400 unaccompanied refugee children at the Moria reception and identification centre were transferred from the destroyed reception center in Lesvos to Thessaloniki on three flights, the migration and asylum ministry said on Thursday.

Their transportation started late on Wednesday and was completed early on Thursday with a flight that took the last 75 unaccompanied refugee children off the island.

The children were welcomed at the Makedonia airport by the National Public Health Organisation (NPHO) and the International Organisation for Migration in order to coordinate their transfer to hotels in northern Greece. All the refugee children were tested for coronavirus before their departure from Lesvos and, for precautionary reasons, the facilities in which they will be housed will be quarantined for 10 days.

The flights were organised by the International Organisation for Migration, whose staff accompanied the children. They were funded by the European Commission and coordinated by the Special Secretariat for Unaccompanied Minors of the Ministry of Migration.