2023-08-04 11:52:55
Migrants
An NGO denounces the situation at the Italian-French border
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) denounced, on Friday, in a report, the situation of migrants at the Italian-French border, France turning them back, sometimes brutally, and Italy offering no assistance, according to the NGO.
PostedAugust 4, 2023, 1:52 PM
Returned migrants are forced to sleep on the streets. (File photo)
A report by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) denounces the situation of migrants on the Italian-French border. “The systematic refoulement of people at the Italian-French border is sometimes accompanied by acts of violence, abuse, degrading or inhuman treatment”, assures the NGO whose team carried out a mission from February to June in Ventimiglia, an Italian city bordering France. “Many of our patients mentioned repeated procedural violations when notified of the ‘refusal of entry’ by the French authorities”, adds MSF, in its report.
On the Italian side, the situation is no better. “For those who are turned back at the French border and for those who are in transit in Ventimiglia, access to essential services is extremely limited”, the Italian authorities having closed the only reception center that existed in this region. These people “are forced to sleep on the streets, in abandoned buildings or emergency shelters. This situation exposes them to marginalization, abuse, bad weather, health risks by depriving them of access to hygiene services, clean water or appropriate shelter,” continues MSF.
Situation of extreme vulnerability
The majority of people treated by MSF were “in situations of extreme vulnerability”, underlines the NGO, recalling that many of them had made “traumatic” trips to come from Africa to Europe. Dermatological, muscular and bone disorders and neurological disorders are the three main pathologies observed by MSF among the migrants treated. Of these, the majority came from Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea and Cameroon.
According to the Italian Ministry of the Interior, nearly 92,000 migrants have arrived in Italy since the start of the year, more than double compared to the same period in 2022. A large number of these migrants consider Italy only as a transit country, wishing to go to France or to countries in Northern Europe.
(AFP)
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