Plans are afoot for the creation of a new reception center for refugees near Thermi, east of Thessaloniki, funded by a German non-governmental organization, daily Kathimerini has learnt.
Representatives of a large German NGO recently visited Thessaloniki for talks with local officials regarding the center's establishment, which is expected to have a capacity of up to 1,500 refugees.
The NGO is said to be offering EUR 5 million for use by local authorities.
Meanwhile, migrants living in a makeshift camp near the village of Idomeni in northern Greece are continuing their efforts to cross the border with Macedonia despite a crackdown at the frontier by the country's border guards.
On Thursday, a group of around 100 refugees approached the barbed wire fence that forms the border between the two countries but were pushed back by police.
Kathimerini quotes Macedonian media, according to which approximately 800 migrants have tried to cross the border in the past two days alone.
Greece's Immigration Policy Minister Yiannis Mouzalas reiterated Thursday his intention to remove migrants from the camp in a peaceful fashion but gave no time frame for the evacuation.
"[The camp at] Idomeni must be dismantled and will be dismantled," he said.
Mouzalas added that migrants whose residence permits have expired will get them automatically renewed by authorities when they are relocated to staterun reception centers.
More than 10,000 people are currently living at the Idomeni camp, with around 5,000 more in a state-run facility in Elliniko, the site of the old Athens airport, and thousands more in other makeshift camps across the country.
On Wednesday, the European Commission proposed the extension of emergency border controls inside the passport-free Schengen area, declaring that tighter checks were justified by shortfalls in Greece's management of the European Union's external border.
Meanwhile, under a new proposal to overhaul the EU's asylum laws, member states refusing to accept refugees could face large fines.