Criminalisation of everyday life at the French-Italian border

Guest post by Emilie Pesselier and Camille Gendrot. Emilie is an activist supporting people on the move. Camille is a PhD Candidate at the Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne University/ Collaborative Institute on Migration (ICM), and member of Watch the Med - Alarm Phone, of the Captain Support Network and of the Feminist Autonomous Centre for Research. This is the fifth post of Border Criminologies’ themed series 'Criminalising the Facilitation of Freedom of Movement' organised by Camille Gendrot and Deanna Dadusc. 

In the prison of Nice (“maison d’arrêt”), the vast majority of nationals from countries other than France, are locked up on remand or following a conviction for the crime of aiding and abetting the entry of 'illegal' people into French territory. This offence, often denounced by campaigns in support of "solidarian offenders", deliberately targets foreign and racialised people who cross French borders every day. In France, the criminalisation of any form of assistance to the movement of people has been enshrined in national law since 1938. Since then, although some modifications have been made - mainly concerning immunities - this article of the Code on the Entry and Stay of Foreigners and the Right of Asylum (Ceseda) is a tool used by French authorities both to break up any form of mutual assistance at the border and to punish racialised people who take the roads and paths from Italy to France.

The media treatment of these situations is different: while French people are more often presented as 'supportive' or 'heroes', people on the move and acting in resistance to migration policies are presented as 'smugglers' or 'members of criminal networks'. 

These differences in treatment contribute to racist and criminalizing political discourse on non-citizens, generating representations in which these people are considered as threats to "public order". These discourses, preferred by many politicians, are part of an attempt to justify the reinforcement of both police and military resources at the border. For example, following the deadly attacks in Nice in 2020, Emmanuel Macron, who was already President of the Republic at the time, announced the reinforcement of the presence of the Sentinel military force at the French-Italian border, immediately making the link between border-crossing, migration, terrorism, drug trafficking and human trafficking networks. However, such rhetoric is intended to place the attention away from the violence of the French border regime and the responsibility of national authorities for its consequences, which are sometimes fatal as the Blessing Matthew tragedy reminds us.

Maintaining racist control over the French-Italian border

The criminalisation of people at the French-Italian border takes place in a particular context. This border, located between two Member States of the Schengen area, is in principle subject to the principle of free movement as defined by the Schengen Borders Code. However, since the creation of the Schengen area, several tools have been defined to allow States to maintain control over their national borders, including the possibility of re-establishing internal border controls in the event of a "serious threat to public order". In France, despite European law providing for this measure to be exceptional and of short duration, the re-establishment of internal border controls has been renewed by the authorities since November 2015. 

In practice, this measure results in reinforced controls at internal borders, so-called procedures for refusing entry to French territory carried out illegally, practices of detention outside any legal framework, collective and expeditious refoulement  to Italy of people stopped at the border and the criminalisation of people. 

These controls do not affect all the people crossing the border on a daily basis on the same level: racialised people are massively targeted by them and are more frequently subjected to these violent procedures. The principle of freedom of movement within the Schengen area does not apply to everyone. On the contrary, it is part of a political logic guided by racist, discriminatory and colonialist principles, which excludes certain people solely on the basis of their skin colour and assumed nationality.

Punishing before excluding

Behind the figures for refusal of entry and refoulement from France to Italy, another, less known reality is implemented daily by the French authorities at the French-Italian border against foreigners. When some of them are controlled, illegally locked up at the border and then pushed back, others are then detained at the Nice “maison d’arrêt”. The latter, presented as "smugglers", are nevertheless targeted by the same political logic. Some of them were turned back several times at the border before being prosecuted for helping people to enter the country without any justification other than the fact that money had been found in their belongings (testimonies speak of a few dozen euros). Others find themselves locked up even though they live in France and have gone to Italy and picked up a passenger on the way back, assuming they were in a free movement area.

The racist logic of French migration policies is again expressed in the prosecutions. When people are charged with assisting the entry of illegal migrants, the penalties differ depending on the nationality of the person prosecuted. While French nationals are more often acquitted or given fines or suspended prison sentences, foreign nationals are mostly remanded in custody and then sentenced to an average of one year's imprisonment combined with a ban on returning to France and Europe of up to five years. The figures for foreigners in Nice prison for this offence and the differential treatment according to the nationality of the persons prosecuted demonstrate once again the logic of control, sorting, criminalisation, imprisonment and expulsion implemented against racialised people by the French authorities. 

The experiences of the French-Italian border, unfortunately, are examples of a broader discriminatory and racist logic at work in both French and European migration policies. Criminalisation can indeed be seen as one of the tools of both French and European governments to punish and deny access to the territory to people perceived as undesirable.   

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