The first 30 refugees to be relocated from Greece boarded a plane in Athens on Wednesday bound for Luxembourg.

The six families from Syria and Iraq mark the start of a program seeking to relocate refugees who have arrived in Greece from Turkey to other European Union countries without them having to make the often-dangerous overland journey across the Balkans on foot.

The number is minuscule compared with the flood of people who risk their lives to reach Greek islands from the nearby Turkish coast.