Since the Ocean Viking affair, the Franco-Italian border under close surveillance

At the Franco-Italian border, controls are intensifying. Faced with Italy’s refusal to allow the humanitarian ship Ocean Viking to dock, France has decided to tighten controls at around ten crossing points. This is the case in Modane in Savoie where the police organize unannounced checks, close to Italy. If most of the time, the police have nothing to report, at times, their doubts are confirmed.

Back to Italy

As for a VTC which attracted the attention of the police. If the driver’s papers are in order, this is not the case for the passenger who has an expired residence permit. In this situation, the sentence falls as explained by Captain Soulas, head of the units of the “Police Aux Frontières” (PAF) service in Modane. “It’s simply the application of an administrative measure, from the moment you are not in order to enter the national territory, the person turns around. So, in this context, she made the object of a refusal of entry and it was re-routed in the direction of Italy”, he explains.

A daily situation for these police officers, since every day, undocumented migrants try to cross the Franco-Italian border. For Ciriac Soulas, the situation is clear when this happens. “Following their arrest, we write the entry refusal form. When there is no identity document, we proceed to an identification towards a visabio, just to really secure the people we are going to. hand over to the Italians, confirm their identity and then they are taken to Italy”, concludes the captain.

On Saturday in Modane, several undocumented migrants were immediately turned back and escorted back to Italy, just minutes after their arrival in France.