Abandoned at Italy’s borders: tales of people today on the go

The ‘Talità Kum’ refuge is located reverse Oulx railway station. Open from 6 pm to 10 am, it is managed by a network of volunteers from Rainbow for Africa and Waldensian Diaconia. A several kilometres further more along the road major to the border, a former roadworker’s dwelling has been occupied for years by a team of activists to deliver spherical-the-clock shelter for men and women in transit.

“During the winter season, the mountain landscape turns into an ice and snow trap for these who attempt to cross it,” says Piero Gorza, an anthropologist and Piedmont representative of Doctors for Human Rights (MEDU).

The journey begins in the square in entrance of the station, the place buses leave for Claviere, the final Italian town before the border, from where migrants and refugees hope to get to Briançon in France.

“When you wander in temperatures of -15°C, if your feet get damp, you danger your life” suggests Gorza. “Winter is a important and remarkable time in which anyone concerned requires to get the job done together to help save lives. Luckily, this valley also has powerful traditions of solidarity, battle and resistance, embedded in people’s recollections from the decades following the war. There have only been five deaths in all these many years thanks to the volunteers and activists who provide guidance in the mountains. It’s like supplying a lifejacket to somebody drowning at sea. It helps prevent deaths”.

Bolzano

Close to 120 migrants ended up living on the avenue in Bolzano in mid-December. People are nevertheless arriving in the city in the hope of crossing the border, but the Brenner Pass is closed and, when compared to ahead of, there are very several makes an attempt to truly cross the border. All over 50 men and women are residing in awful circumstances under the motorway bridge, amidst piles of garbage, with rats working concerning their battered tents and with no obtain to cleanse drinking water or bathrooms.