Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says that migrants at the Ventimiglia border between France and Italy are often sent back by French authorities and then refused adequate assistance on the Italian side of the border. MSF called on Italy and France to implement all necessary measures to guarantee dignity and protection of vulnerable people in transit.
In a new report, MSF said that thousands of people who try to pass the Ventimiglia border are turned around -- including unaccompanied minors, pregnant women, elderly migrants and other vulnerable persons.
"We see extremely vulnerable individuals who are rejected by the French police in an indiscriminate way, without any consideration for the specific individual conditions, which then leads to these persons finding themselves on Italian soil without adequate assistance by Italian institutions," said Sergio Di Dato, MSF coordinator in Ventimiglia.
The document titled "Passage is forbidden" was published on August 4 and is based on MSF's activities in the region. It highlights that 80% of the migrants and refugees in contact with MSF in the Ventimiglia region declared that they had tried to reach France and were rejected on more than one occasion.
The charity says that this is based on the number of people it attended to between February and June this year, specifying that 320 migrants with medical needs made use of MSF's mobile clinic in Ventimiglia, while 684 people in transit participated in health-promoting activities organized by the organization.
MSF added that 215 of the 320 patients it had seen were suffering from medical conditions which were either caused or made worse by living on the street, including skin problems, respiratory and gastrointestinal infections, wounds, and joint problems.14 suffered from chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular problems, which require continuous long-term therapy.
Squalid conditions in border region
Over a third of the 48 unaccompanied minors who were assisted by MSF there said they were rejected, while several persons said they were arbitrarily detained by the French police and held in containers overnight.
The NGO also highlighted that there weren't any protection mechanisms in place for women and minors in these containers, and that food and water provisions at times were sparse, medical assistance often were denied and sanitary services were inadequate. When there was overcrowding, people reportedly were forced to sleep on the floor.
Furthermore, MSF also identified at least four separate cases of families being separated during these border incidents in the first half of the year alone.