After the defeat of the communists in the civil war, communists, members and supporters of the KKE were persecuted and sent into labor camps, while their children were designated as "orphans" and sent to church schools for "re-education." Although some who fled into Albania and neighboring areas were eventually allowed to return to Greece, the ethnic Macedonians (both guerillas and civilians) in Greece who were forced to flee their birthplaces to avoid the repression of the Greek government are still being denied re-entry into Greece to this day despite the fact that they are legally Greek citizens. These restrictions effectively culminate an extensive campaign of ethnic assimilation/hellenization. The ethnic Macedonians who fled Greece during the civil war period are the last ethnic-political refugees of the era, having withstood a period of exile spanning over half a century.
