Concerns Raised for Violence at French-Italian Border After Several Death Reports
According to Border Forensics, an organisation investigating violence at borders, Blessing Mathew was last seen on May 7, when a mobile unit of the French gendarmerie wanted to stop her and two of her companions at La Vachette village, about 15 kilometres away from the Italian border, AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.
Being the first documented case of a migrant’s life-ending fatally in this province, it raised concerns over the deadly effects of the militarisation of this border region, in addition to the civil society seeking responsibilities to be assigned for deaths recorded at this route, which is the deadliest of the Alpine routes.
According to data from Christina del Biaggio and Sara Bachellerie, 46 deaths were recorded at the French-Italian border since 2015, while the Alpine routes recorded 87 deaths.
Data from the UNITED group, published on World Refugee Day, shows that 48,647 refugees and migrants have died since 1993 in an attempt to reach the EU Member states.
The report points out that the number is higher by about 8,000 cases compared to the statistics published in 2020, which revealed that 40,500 deaths were recorded.
“UNITED places the blame for these deaths squarely on the policies and practices of the EU, its member states, and third-country partners such as Morocco and Turkey, pushing people towards taking perilous journeys to reach EU territory,” a statement published by Statewatch explains.
Furthermore, data from Relief Web shows that as of June 12, 2922, the number of people reaching Europe has reached 41,140, and about 742 people have already died or gone missing in the last six months while trying to reach the bloc.
In February, 12 migrants were found dead on the Turkish border with Greece, with the low temperatures being the main cause of death after the victims were pushed back by Greek border guards, as the Interior Turkish Minister, Süleyman Soylu, claimed.
“12 of the 22 migrants pushed back by Greek Border Units, stripped off from their clothes and shoes, have frozen to death,” the Minister said on Twitter.
Similar cases have been reported in different countries across the Member States, especially in the Eastern Border, which was quite attacked by irregular migrants throughout 2021. In addition, fatality cases were recorded on the border between Poland and Belarus last year, leaving the migrants stuck in cold temperatures as none of the countries didn’t accept them.
