Day breaks in Ventimiglia, in the far north of Italy.
In this makeshift camp not far from the Franco-Italian border, candidates for asylum.
They all share the same objective: to reach France at all costs.
“In Italy there is no work, that’s why I want to cross the border, go elsewhere, as far away as possible, to France, Germany or England,” testifies this migrant who wishes to keep the anonymity.
Behind this border post, the French commune of Menton.
Nearly 33,000 migrants were turned back there in 2023 by the Alpes-Maritimes border police.
Indiscriminate pushbacks have largely been interrupted since the beginning of February following a decision by the Council of State – which limited “refusals of entry” to France's internal borders.
“French law enforcement agencies have been forced to suspend the collective and hasty pushbacks implemented here since 2015,” explains Jacopo Colomba, of the NGO We World. “Now we are talking about readmissions – in accordance with European law .
They provide for an individual assessment of each person’s situation.”
Major change in the border control procedure
Jacopo Colomba has been providing assistance to migrants turned back at the Franco-Italian border for six years.
Today, he notes a major change in the procedure, which is now done in conjunction with the Italian police.
“France must prove that the person passed through Italy,” he continues. “And there must also be authorization from the Italian authorities who must accept the entry of the migrant onto their soil, something which wasn’t done before.”
A change which quickly had a consequence: the number of migrants returned to the border was divided by four in one month.
In this center managed by associations in Ventimiglia, the humanitarian team wonders if this situation will continue with the increase in migratory flows expected with the arrival of summer.
“We will have to see if it continues when more people arrive, and also with the Olympics and the European elections which are approaching,” specifies Cristian Papini, director of the NGO Caritas Ventimiglia.
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