The crumbling relics of the 2004 Athens Olympics are playing host to new crowds of people— many seeing humans enter the facilities for the first time since the last Olympics spectators departed in the summer of 2004.

In an effort to clear the streets around Victoria Square and other central Athens locations where refugees had set up tent cities, the Greek interior ministry opened the gates of the Galatsi Indoor Hall and the Hellenikon hockey centre in southern Athens.

Hundreds of refugees were transported by bus to the facilities, where numerous Greek volunteers and aid workers were on hand to assist the refugees.

The Galatsi Olympic Hall had been used for table tennis and rhythmic gymnastics in 2004.

The venues are just two of several that have remained unused in recent years, and Greek authorities are said to be considering whether more could be opened to accommodate refugees.

Since the beginning of the year, more than 310,000 people have arrived from neighboring Turkey, most of them Syrians fleeing the civil war.