Doctors Without Borders (MSF) released a report on Friday condemning the mistreatment by French police of migrants attempting to cross from Italy to France at the Ventimiglia border on the Mediterranean coast. The report, titled “Denied Passage: The Continuous Struggle of People on the Move pushed-back and Stranded at the Italian-French Border,” details the violent mistreatment of migrants by French police, who are offered little to no assistance by Italian authorities after France refuses them entry.
The report, which drew its conclusions from MSF’s health care operations in Ventimiglia from February to June 2023, shows that French law enforcement “systematically” returns refugees identified to have crossed illegally to Italy, “often with violence, inhumane treatment, and arbitrary detention.” Migrants are forcefully “repatriated” regardless of their specific circumstances, it states, and “vulnerable people” such as minors, pregnant women, new mothers, the elderly, and the severely ill are “not exempt from this practice,” according to the report.
Each month, hundreds, if not thousands, of migrants come through Ventimiglia, an Italian beach town near the French border. MSF, which operates a mobile clinic there, has warned that “access to adequate shelter, healthcare, clean water, or sanitary facilities is extremely limited.” Only two out of four promised government migrant housing facilities are operating.
Most migrants live on the streets or in shelters. Some have taken to sleeping in the town’s cemetery and are forced to drink from its fountains. Flavio Di Muro, Ventimiglia’s far right mayor, brought in security officers this week to remove them.
Many of MSF’s patients in Ventimiglia have already endured perilous trips to Europe, often experiencing terrible experiences in their home countries before they even leave, or on their way.
The ‘bottleneck’ in Ventimiglia results in undue hardship to refugees seeking asylum. The report emphasizes that migrants endure significant hazards on their trips both to and within Europe, and then face difficult and inhumane living conditions and lack of access to healthcare once they arrive. It also criticizes the failure of European countries to properly protect individuals’ well-being.
The report concludes that it is critical to provide full protection and services to those in transit, regardless of their immigration status.
Migration has historically been a source of strain in Franco-Italian relations, as the European Union grapples with devising policies to deal with record arrivals of migrants from North Africa.
Italy’s interior ministry declined to comment on the report, while its French equivalent did not respond to an email request from international media.