For migrants in Greece, road to heaven leads through Albania

A relatively smooth section of Greece's rugged border with Albania is turning into a major thoroughfare north for migrants in Greece seeking a better life in Europe's prosperous heartland

IEROPIGI, Greece -- In the early 1990s, tens of thousands of impoverished Albanian migrants slogged through the oak woods near the village of Ieropigi, dodging Greek border patrols to seek work in Greece after the collapse of communism in Albania.

Thirty years later, the cross-border flow is reversed, though on a much smaller scale. Now it's people from the Middle East and Africa who flit through the same oak woods, moving from Greece to Albania this time, halfway through their long trek to Europe's heartland.

Since 2018, migrants and refugees who'd rather try their luck somewhere richer than Greece have made this relatively smooth bit of the rugged border the main way out of the country by land.

Shepherd Michalis Trasias, 69, who grazes his sheep on the Greek side of the border, told The Associated Press he sees groups heading into Albania every day.