Police violence at the french-italian border, between Ventimiglia and Menton.
We have listened to an impressive amount of violence stories in this week of Christmas.The reports will be added at the end.
This post is not empowering nor positive and we’ve summarized the regular violence in the trains between Ventimiglia and Menton & in the police station of the french border police a lot of times before.
This post is, again, to raise awareness and rage – to give the only possibility to share what the victims of this violence share with us, and what is unseen.
We hope that this post will reach people in the area and in both concerned countries.
Individuals of police and state forces decided every single time to violate actively people’s rights and hurt physically and mentally.
Why did we hear about beating and slapping people & tear gazing on almost every day between december 21st and december 27th? There is no clear answer, but it is definitely easier to act illegaly in public trains when nobody is around because of Corona measurements and christian holidays. Most trains have been almost completely empty these last days.
The lack of coordination of migrants gives nobody the right for violence. This is the individual decision of the state forces operating in the area here, and them knowing that there haven’t been any consequences in the last four years.
You are welcome to share to spread as much as possible.
You are welcome to join us or support as in any way you want and can.
For an overview and more details on our work in the area, read our last report from the 17th of december.
Love and rage in these times – the Kesha Niya team
Summarized incidents of the last days:
22d dec: 6 men in the containers of the french police station are being tear gased. The space is small and there is no place to get away. The men scream to be left out because they can not breathe. Nobody is reacting. They stay inside, unable to breathe, for the next hours.
One man is hiding in the train toilets on his way to France. As he is not opening during a police control, the french police is opening the door withh a metal crowbar and is beating the man on the head and the body. They also put tear gas inside, it gets in his face and directly his nose. He is losing consciousness. He tells us later when we meet him, that he has heart problems and that it was actually dangerous for him. No medical care took place, he was taken to the police station and was eventually pushed bacl to Italy.
One teenager has been arrested in the police station. Before being pushed back to Italy, a french police officer takes a long time (at least 30 minutes) to insult him. He is saying things like “Dégage toi, ici c’est mon pays.” (Get out, this is my country).
When the young man declares himself minor and says that he is born in 2003, the police officer is laughing about him and telling him that this is not the age he will write down on the paper denying him entry to France. This happened to every person under 18 that we meet.
23rd dec: One man is asked to give his finger prints in the italian police station. He explains that his fingerprints were taken in Lampedusa already and that they should check the system. The police recognizes him from the day before, gets angry and beats him in the head, stomach and leg.
24th: Two men are being tear gased by the french police.
25th dec: Some people are hiding in the train toilet. The french police is opening the door with a metal crowbar and put immediately tear gas inside. Nobody can breathe and they try to get outside. While doing this, one man falls to the ground. Another man is being pushed in the side by the police.
26th dec: Two men are hiding in the train toilet. The french police opens the door with a metal crowbar and beats the men on the hand.
These were stories we heared on a daily basis.