The protestors from the camp in Katsikas spent the night on the highway. The Protest continued this morning, and as more people amassed again on the highway, they marched on to the highway crossing to block all ways. Reportedly, the major came by and told the protestors that they have to leave the highway otherwise they will be removed by force. As the protestors insisted on the fulfilment of their demands for better living conditions and the major’s threat was implemented. Riot police violently pushed people of the highway. The people were noticeably in distress, children where crying and people fled the violent riot police back to the camp. However, 27 people were arrested, among them also Greek and international solidarity protestors.
While in the camp in Katsikas the windows of the police containers where smashed, anarchist groups in Ioannina responded quickly to the violent eviction and the detention as well. They occupied the town hall in Ioannina, where the major was therefore stuck. Nobody could enter or leave the townhall anymore. Negotiations went on and around 7pm the detained protesters were all released without charges. Shortly after, the town hall occupants retrieved.
Meanwhile, the fear of deportation back to Turkey spread among the protestors in the camp. They were told by police forces, that all people will be deported to Turkey who participate in further protests. Thereby, the authorities tried to ensure that protest will not re-emerge too soon in Katsikas.
Similarly, intimidation was practiced in Idomeni today. Military planes and helicopters where circulating over the camp for hours. Apparently, this was to intimidate Macedonia/FYROM who has trespassed repeatedly shot tear gas and shock grenades into Greek territory. However, who was probably more intimidated were the people in Idomeni who have fled war and hoped to seek safety in Europe.
On the 18th of November 2015, Slovenia closed its borders for refugees who are not from Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq. Just a little later, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia also adopted this practice of segregation. There is little doubt about that this policy was pushed by the European Union as a starting point for slowing down or even stopping the flow over the Balkan route. Thousands of refugees were stuck in Eidomeni, Greece, and started to protest. The Moving Europe Bus was on the spot and reported live from the 22nd of November to the 11th of December 2015 – when the camp had been evicted. On the 5th of February 2016, we decided to restart our live-ticker as the new year has already seen several attempts from the European Union to slow down the migration movement towards Europe. Macedonia seems to become a key player in this strategy. For several weeks the Macedonian border authorities have slowed down the transit process. The predictable effect of this, given the high arrival numbers to the Greek islands, is that thousands are becoming stuck in Greece. On the 3th of February the Macedonian government announced its plans to strengthen border controls which will further reduce the speed of the transit process. In the meantime, the Greek authorities have established a new buffer zone near to Eidomeni. Since the camp at the border has already become highly overcrowded, there are fears that the violent scenes of last December in Eidomeni will be repeated. Therefore the authorities have decided that people should be kept at bay, at a gas station on the highway that is 20 km far away from the border (at Polykastro). For weeks migrants have had to stay there for hours under miserable conditions. Since the end of January the situation at the Greek border zone has escalated once more. There is only a trickle of people being let through to Macedonia and now people at the gas station have to wait for days before their buses finally leave towards the border. On the 3rd of February 2016 thousands of them decided not to wait any longer at the petrol station and started to walk towards the Macedonian border (#marchofhope 2). Further protests and tensions are to be expected. The Moving Europe Bus is on the spot since the 2nd of February and reports live from Polykastro and Eidomeni.
