Reporters from the Italian newspaper Il Giornale interviewed migrants at the border. One individual named “Hamid” claimed that French police had forced him back across the border into Italy while racially insulting him.
“When the French police understood that I am Algerian, they started insulting me in Arabic. They told me ‘Fuck your mother’. They are racists,” Hamid said.
France’s National Borders Assistance for Foreigners (Anafé) has also accused the police of being racist. In a report the NGO accused the police of “asking for the documents only to people with physical traits that may suggest that they originate from African or Middle East countries”.
The NGO claims that train “passengers are subdivided and selected on the basis of ‘external’ signs, such as skin color, ‘smell’, clothing”.
Il Giornale also interviewed a man who lives in the border town of Ventimiglia who was detained by French police because he looked like a migrant. “I live in Ventimiglia with my family I was just going to do a concert. I’m a singer,” he told journalists.
Earlier, in October 2018, the Italian daily reported that French police were in fact crossing the border into Italy and returning migrants to the town of Claviere. Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini responded: “What happened to Claviere is an unprecedented offense against our country.”
On Wednesday statistics were revealed by a Greek migration policy official highlighting “the concern in Europe” on the issue.
“The migration issue remains and will remain for a long time on the agenda,” said Georges Koumoutsakos, the Deputy Minister for the Protection of the Citizen.
According to Koumoutsakos, the proportion of migrants from Turkey to Greece has increased by one third between June 20 and 20 July compared to last year at the same time, reported French daily Le Figaro.
“More than 3 000 arrivals in total have been registered on the islands of Lesbos, Samos and Kos” in the Aegean, said the Greek politician. This represents “an increase of 30 percent over the same period a year ago,” he told Skai radio.
Koumoutsakos also said while the migration policy must “respect human rights, it should also repect the security of Greek citizens and the country”.