The problem is well-known and it reappears periodically with more intensity depending on current events: it is about migration with the eternal debate between security and humanity.
Naturally, it is more challenging to handle where there is a border, such as the one between Menton and Ventimiglia, which is a point of passage.
Very recently, the new Minister of the Interior Gérard Darmanin, after a meeting with his Italian counterpart Prefect Lamorgese, announced from Rome the creation of a special Franco-Italian brigade that will be under a single command in the border region Ventimiglia-la Roya-Menton; officially to track down smuggling networks. Which is only part of the problem, much more complex.
But human rights defense associations (see list in the box) are not satisfied with the Council of State’s decision of July 8: “France violates the law at the French-Italian border” demanding an asylum policy more understanding of migrants’ rights.
They denounce that for years, French law enforcement has refused to register any asylum request in this area and is multiplying illegal practices on a daily basis (pushbacks, ignoring minors, etc.).
Moreover, France was severely condemned by the ECHR (European Court of Human Rights) on July 2, 2020, for “inhuman and degrading treatment” towards asylum seekers. In fact, instead of “humanity and firmness,” France increasingly favors repression.
A recent incident has reignited the situation: on August 1st, the Italian Government closed the transit reception camp “Campo Roia” managed by the Italian Red Cross, which falls under the Ministry of the Interior: Early August, nearly 200 people are already sleeping outside, in deplorable sanitary conditions, without access to drinking water, and with very limited access to a healthcare system.
As a result, France is currently pushing back 100 to 150 people daily at the lower Menton border: families, minors… are detained in the PAF Saint-Louis bridge algecos, without distinction or any health precautions; these individuals often have to walk back to Ventimiglia, 10 km away, regardless of their health condition.
For the associations, “the meaning of this dual decision by France and Italy on this cross-border territory is clear: the invisibilization and criminalization of people in search of a possible life. It’s the same criminal and barbaric political foundation that leads to immobilizing rescue ships in the Mediterranean like the Ocean Viking for spurious administrative reasons, or to harass migrants in destitution in Calais and elsewhere.”
Let us remember Pastor Martin Niemöller’s refrain (1946): “When they came to get… I said nothing./ When they came to get me, there was no one left to protest.”
An appeal is made “to all people who still think that there cannot be an ‘under-humanity’ in France, Italy, Europe, to sign this petition, to inform those around them of the situation, and to participate as much as they can, financially, materially, or through their concrete help, in the actions of organizations opposing this barbaric dehumanization, the seedbed of a creeping fascization of our societies.”
To carry their action through to the end, all signatory organizations “urgently” demand:
– A decent transit reception center on both sides of the border
– The immediate consideration of asylum requests by the police at the border, before directing people to an asylum seekers’ reception platform
– The use of public funds to prioritize hospitality rather than repression
– A true welcome policy for exiles, involving different political entities and the population in France and across Europe
