Immigration affecting Athens

If you're asking about Syrian refugees, no, with the possible exception of the island of Lesvos. What does impact tourism in Athens to a degree is pocket pickers in crowded areas including on the buses and Metro. Be hyper vigilant and keep your valuables close and in front of you, not slung over your shoulder on your back. Wear a money belt or neck wallet under your clothing.

You won't have any problems in Athens. Most of the refugee issues are with island close to the Turkish mainland like Chios, Samos, Lesvos, Kos and others. While there are some refugees in Athens for the most part they will not be an issue. Having said that we should support helping out refugees who are seeking safety from a very serious and violent situation in Syria.

In today's (3/19/16) paper (Minneapolis) there was an article about the refugees packing the Athens port of Pireas. I believe it mentioned other areas on the mainland also. (My wife read it. I didn't)

I got back from a week in Athens yesterday. In the centre, around the sites, and in the heart of Piraeus you'd have no idea at all that there was a crisis going on.

There are a large number of people, mainly women and children fleeing a war zone, in temporary accommodation in Greece. The Greek government and people, already under incredible economic pressure themselves, are doing their best to help them. Hopefully other countries will also step up their efforts to help and. for the sake of the refugees, the situation will be resolved as quickly as possible.

Alan

Just returned from 2 weeks in Greece. As Alan mentioned, there was no impact at all in Athens. Five days is a long time!

Hi,
We returned from Greece 2 weeks ago and when driving from Nafplio back to Athens I was looking in the area around Pireaus to see if I could see any of the immigrant camps, as there are reportedly 5000 immigrants in Pireaus. I didn't see any from the main road, nor did we see any in Athens. In fact, I think there were far less panhandlers and homeless visible in Athens tourist areas than there would be in any major US city.
We felt totally safe walking in tourist areas at 10 PM and had no issues using the Metro either. A very enjoyable trip! The dollar goes far these days, and although the ticket prices have been increased at museums and archeological sites, we found restaurant and small hotel prices to be very affordable. I would have no reservations about visiting Greece and the people were great!

While there are several thousand refugees camping at Piraeus port they are in a fenced off area between the ferry and Cruise ports. As I understand it there is no interaction between the tourists and the refugees.