• A giant puppet of a young Syrian girl travels through Europe to symbolize children trying to escape war in their country.

    She arrives in Breil-sur-Roya on Tuesday.

  • The opportunity to recall that migrants have difficulty crossing the Franco-Italian border because of a policy of "refoulement", denounce associations.

  • Despite dense news in Afghanistan, "these events will not bring more refugees to the Côte d'Azur", assures the association.

    They would favor Germany or Great Britain.

At the end of July, a giant puppet, Little Amal, left Turkey and crossed from all over Europe, to arrive in England. This Tuesday, she will be in Breil-sur-Roya, in the Alpes-Maritimes, on the border with Italy. In this journey of 8,000 km and 50 stopovers, she represents a Syrian child and above all, she symbolizes the story of children who try to escape the war by finding refuge in European countries. If she can cross borders, this is often not the case between Italy and France, even with very dense news, especially in Afghanistan.

Two weeks ago, in Montgenèvre (Hautes-Alpes), near Briançon, two Afghan families were sent back.

“Whether there is a crisis or not, it's the same repression policy,” suggests Agnès Lerolle, coordinator on a border observation project.

Many associations have been denouncing this no-reception policy for years.

"

She adds: “If some Afghans have made it out of the country and are on their way to the Balkans, they are going to make an extremely difficult journey, very dangerous for their lives.

Considering all the terrestrial journey that must be made, it will take a long time to see the first people arrive.

And if they arrive in France, it is to go to England or Germany.

"Indeed, according to her," the Côte d'Azur will not experience a greater influx of migrants.

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A region "not really welcoming to foreigners"

Christine Poupon, Amnesty regional uprooted people relay, confirms: “No, there will not be a massive influx of refugees.

Already, because the path is dense and complicated and above all, because it is not a favorite place for this population.

According to Cimade 06, an association which defends the rights of foreigners, five Afghan newcomers have arrived in the territory of the Alpes-Maritimes since January 2021.

She adds: “And in general, the region is not very welcoming to foreigners.

It is very difficult to be accommodated, especially with a real lack of social housing.

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"We no longer know what to do to help them"

“I don't know what to do,” desperately blurted out a Cimade volunteer on the phone with a man who had obtained refugee status and who has been trying to bring his wife since 2019. After multiple procedures, she “finally” received authorization on August 16. “She was in Islamabad, Pakistan to collect the necessary documents. Since the French Embassy in Kabul has been closed for several years now, it is either there that visas are issued or in New Delhi. But the next day, she could no longer leave the country. The Taliban had taken power, ”explains the volunteer from Nice.

This testimony is one example among many others. For two years, according to associations, it has become more and more difficult to bring in one's family, despite “this international right to family reunification when one obtains refugee status”. “We are desperate,” confides a volunteer The situation is becoming urgent. We write to the crisis center, to the embassies. And we don't have an answer. We no longer know what to do to help them. "

Every day, these associations indicate receiving "calls for help", people asking to "save [their] children" while they have been making requests since 2019. There are 3,500 pending cases according to Amnesty International.

Asked last week by

20 Minutes

, the services of the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes and the Ministry of the Interior had not responded at the time of publication of these lines.

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