Friday 15 / November / 2024
Calais (France)/ Idomeni (Greece): Work began on Monday to clear a shanty town outside Calais used by migrants trying to reach Britain after the French government won a legal battle to dismantle part of the camp.
Also on Monday, Macedonian police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of migrants and refugees who stormed the border from Greece, tearing down a gate as frustrations boiled over at restrictions imposed on people moving through the Balkans.
In France, one person was arrested for trying to prevent the clearing of the site - where about 3,000 people are staying - by about 20 workers under heavy police protection.
Regional Prefect Fabienne Buccio said the police presence was needed because "extremists" could try to intimidate migrants into turning down housing offers or buses to reception centres.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said last week that authorities would work with humanitarian organisations to relocate the migrants to a nearby park of converted shipping containers or other reception centres around France.
On Thursday a judge upheld a government order to evict migrants living in the southern part of the camp, although a few makeshift buildings of social importance such as a school and a theatre are to remain untouched.
Thousands of migrants fleeing war and poverty, from Afghanistan to Syria, have converged on the northern port over the past year.
Most attempt to climb illegally onto trains using the Channel Tunnel or lorries heading to Britain where they hope to settle. Their presence has led to tension with some of the local population and to a permanent police deployment.
Meanwhile, a Reuters witness said Macedonian police fired several rounds of tear gas into crowds who tore down the metal gate and onto a railway line where migrants sat refusing to move, demanding to cross into the country.
There were an estimated 8,000 people gathered at Idomeni, the small frontier community on Greece's border with Macedonia. Most were Syrians and Iraqis.
Earlier on Monday, a crush had developed along the frontier after rumours spread that Macedonian authorities had opened the border after several hours of it remaining sealed shut.
Crowds who gathered at the razor wire fence proceeded to use a heavy metal pole to bring down a gate by digging beneath the barrier and using force to push it up and out. At least two people collapsed in the crush and ensuing use of tear gas, Reuters television images showed.
At least 22,000 refugees and migrants have been stranded in Greece in the past week since border restrictions began along other countries in the Balkan corridor used by individuals to get to central and northern Europe.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told Greek daily Ta Nea in an interview on Monday that European Union countries must work together to deal with the migrant crisis troubling the bloc and avoid blaming each other.
"We must fight for Europe. We must stop blaming each other. On the contrary, we must unite forces and work together for a European solution to the refugee crisis. This is the only way for Europe to emerge stronger from this crisis," Steinmeier said.
Steinmeier said unilateral moves by EU countries could not support a sustainable solution to the problem and that a common course was needed.
"Neither side can benefit when inside the EU one blames the other. In this way we are not moving ahead by even one step in managing the refugee crisis. The rifts that are being formed now must be laboriously healed again," he told the paper.
Last week, NATO envoys set out how ships already deployed in the Aegean, including Turkish and Greek vessels, will pass intelligence and reconnaissance information to Turkish and Greek coastguards and to the European Union border agency, Frontex, as well as returning to Turkey any migrants NATO crews rescue.
Steinmeier said it was crucial for Turkey to meet its commitments and move decisively against smugglers to reduce the flows of migrants from Turkey to the EU.
"This is the only way we can move to the next stage. The negotiations in the March 7 (EU summit) will take stock of where we are and what other possibilities are available," the foreign minister said.
