War at the borders: Jungle eviction starts in Calais; fences down and teargas in Idomeni

This morning in Idomeni, at the Greek/Macedonia border, some of the thousands of people stuck on the Greek side of the closed and fortified border began to pull down the thick razorwire fences. (TV footage here.) The Macedonian police replied firing continuous rounds of teargas from the other side. Numbers have been building for days, as Macedonia and other Balkan states try to shut down the flow of people from Greece.

Meanwhile on the western edge of Fortress Europe, the eviction of the Calais jungle has started. Riot police have gathered around the camp in huge numbers, over 50 vans counted plus water cannon. Over the last few days officials have toured the jungle issuing warnings, after a court ruled on Thursday that all dwellings in the south zone could be cleared, while some social spaces including the schools, women’s centre, library, church and mosques, will supposedly be left for now. At the time of writing (11 AM), riot police are going in with flashball guns drawn in support of workers who are pulling down shacks with crowbars. Some people are sitting on the roofs of shacks refusing to budge.

Some photos below. For rapid updates through the day you can check twitter hashtags #calais and #idomeni. For more detailed information see:

News from Idomeni and other Greek borders: livetickeridomeni also infomobile

News from Calais: calais migrant solidarity