During the day the snowcapped peaks around the Italian town of Claviere on the French border are a spectacle. Night becomes a dangerous Alpine route for many underground migrants trying to reach France via Montgenèvre.
“Mountains, snow, rain, sun. . . regardless. We have no choice, “said Maryam Bodaghi, a 23-year-old Iranian engineer who was trying to cross the Alps with her husband Milad Zanghi, a Christian whom Bodaghi said was being tortured at home.
Like many other refugees using this method, she and her husband are going to Calais because they want to go there. crossing the Channel and arriving in the UK. But first he must cross the French border. This means walking about 15km through knee-deep snow when temperatures drop to 10C, and hiding from French police and monitoring the waves. Accidents have caused people to be cut off from frostbite or to die from hypothermia, according to non-governmental organizations.
Many refugees return home exhausted and exhausted to the Fraternità Massi refugee camp in the nearby town of Oulx in Italy. “I could die there. I was covered in snow up to my waist, ”said a 30-year-old Moroccan man. He was arrested and returned by French police for three hours. This was my first attempt. Many manage to try a second or third time.
The crossing of Montgenèvre has been a major route to France for immigrants to Germany, where most people go, or the UK. It was originally used mainly by men in West Africa, but since spring last year it has been used repeatedly by Afghans and Iranians to escape economic hardship and persecution. They often walk for several months after arriving in Europe.
Crossing the Alpine is just one part of a grueling journey that relief teams say usually takes between two and six years. The migrants include families of three generations, pregnant women and infants.
Afghan migrants to France from Italy resting along a mountainous road to the border © Daniel Cole / AP
“Recently, we had a couple of pregnant women crossing the street. One was due the next day and the other was due the next month, “said Sylvain Eymard, who oversees Les Terasses Solidaires, a refugee camp and other non-governmental organizations in Briançon, a town near the French border.
The report estimates that about 5,500 people arrived between January and September – up about 30 percent from what had already happened nine months earlier in 2018.
France has added police to the region, sending two additional teams plus about 220 police officers to protect the border. The growth of migrant workers is a government problem, which is already facing pressure from the UK to move reduce road trials 27 people died when a boat capsized in November.
President Emmanuel Macron, who hopes to run for a second term in April’s election, is also trying to persuade dissatisfied voters to the right of Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour that he can be trusted to control what many see as an illegal immigrant in France.
On the Italian side of the Alps, France’s move to reduce migration faces some uncertainties. Andrea Terzolo, the mayor of Oulx, stated: “I am apprehensive about the next election in France. When things change, this could be the new Calais. “Many refugees arrive daily in his town of about 3,000 people, who rely heavily on tourism, and Terzolo said modern policies are putting refugees at risk instead of limiting the area’s mobility. “There are police, soldiers, soldiers everywhere, but somehow they [the migrants] go, “he added.
The idea was shared by Silvia Massara, a volunteer who helped run the Fraternità Massi defense. “People without limbs, children with disabilities, the elderly. They can all cross it in a different way, “he said.
The mountain river has killed five people and two people have been reported missing since the strike began five years ago, say NGOs. The actual number may be larger. Volunteers say the growing number of police forces is encouraging immigrants to take deceptive steps to remain anonymous.
“It is becoming increasingly dangerous. This is a big part. If someone has gone astray, it is very difficult to find him, ”said Michele Belmondo, an Italian Red Cross correspondent in Susa Valley. “Sometimes we search for people in the mountains. . . and probably in the spring we find the bodies. ”
An Italian Red Cross staff member talking to refugees trying to cross the Alpine to France © Michele Belmondo / Red Cross
Migrants who are experiencing difficulties may call for help. But they often have SIM cards in their phones, which makes them harder to track. Surrounded by trees and snow, many find it difficult to describe their location.
The plague has made the journey difficult. Covid crossing is essential for all Italian trails as well as for long journeys in France. He could not leave Briançon without proof of Covid’s erroneous test. But the snow, the health restrictions or the strict police did not stop them – many crossed the border, paid thousands of euros and took years to get here.
Ahaziah Mosolli, 36, left Afghanistan eight years ago. She crossed the Montgenèvre in December with her six-year-old son, who wants to give a new life to Germany.
Like Mosolli, Bodaghi and Zanghi arrived in Italy from the Balkans and Turkey but saw the UK as their only option. They had been in Europe for several months before being arrested by the Slovenian police, who seized their fingerprints. If they apply for asylum in another EU country such as Germany, they are in danger of being repatriated to Slovenia according to European law regarding the country that first came to the asylum seeker.
“We have to go to the UK by boat like other people,” Bodaghi said.
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