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Mental status of single men traveling the Alpine Route
The Alps are another border to cross for the thousands of migrants on their way to the European Union. After the Bosnian, Croatian and Slovenian ones, those are other mountains to climb, other more snow, other more mountain paths in the woods to walk, other more freezing nights under the sky, and more cold weather to fight against.
Since 2017, the Val di Susa has become the theatre of the so-called "Alpine Route", the overland route that migrants use to reach France. In the beginning, the path involved another area, but from 2018 Oulx is the destination, and every night 20-25 migrants wait for the dark for heading the border. They are citizens from Afghanistan, Iran, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Mali. They are mostly single men coming from two dangerous routes: the Balkan one by land, and the Libyan one by sea.
Migrants stop as little as possible in Oulx: the proximity to the border pushes them to leave almost immediately. Everyone has had in the body the rhythm of the game for years and they have an urgent desire to go. Despite the pandemic temporarily slowed the march, the migratory flow in this area has been constant for years.
Leaving Oulx at dusk with the last bus, migrants reach Claviere, then night-walk through the woods for 12km till reaching Briançon, the first place in France where they can find help. The mountain crossing is very demanding and appropriate equipment is distributed from volunteers before leaving the Refuge. Cold and snow at 2.000 meters above sea level are a serious danger. Wolves are another threat for those who venture, but the PaF - French border police - is the greatest danger: anyone caught crossing the border is taken to the Montgenèvre police station and sent back to Italy the next morning after a night-stop in jail. This constitutes a violation of the rights of asylum seekers, yet another violation of the rights of migrants on European territory.
Frustration, sadness, solitude, uncertainty, fear. These are the feelings that run through the mind of these guys. In this modern representation of the Rorschach tables, where the migrants are themselves the inkblots of the tables, they look straight into their past and at their future, to forget this present time who is stealing them the youth, the light-heartedness belonging to those years, but it will definitely never steal them their dreams.
Italy/France, April 2021