ROME: Migrants are being systematically turned away by France at the border with Italy with “acts of violence, degrading and inhumane treatment”, the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity said on Friday.

People spoken to by an MSF team between February and June in the Italian city of Ventimiglia on the border, reported recurrent procedural violations by French officials, and indifference from Italian ones.

“The systematic pushback of individuals at the French-Italian border is often accompanied by acts of violence, degrading or inhumane treatment as well as arbitrary detention,” MSF said in its report.

The situation was also dire on the Italian side of the border, it said.

“Access to essential services is extremely limited for those returned at the French border and those transiting through Ventimiglia,” MSF said, due to the closure by Italy of the only emergency reception centre in the area.

Migrants are “forced to sleep on the streets, in abandoned buildings or under (the) bridge, thus exposed to danger, health and weather hazards and without access to sanitary facilities, clean water or adequate shelter”, it said.

Published in Dawn, Aug 5th, 2023