The long journey of migrants

An uninterrupted flow along the mountains of Val di Susa

They call it the "underground railway" like the one in Colson Whitehead's book and, just as in the nineteenth century there were those who favored liberation from slavery, so today in Italy there is a dense network of associations and groups that support the path of migrants. Linea d'Ombra in Trieste, Solidarity in France, Rifugio Massi, Rainbow4Africa, Fornelli in Lotta and Medu in Val Susa. They offer hot meals, beds, shoes, clothes, care, shelter.

In the early afternoon Carlo and Alessandra leave Rivoli where the group of Fornelli in Lotta volunteers has prepared rice, vegan meatballs, pasta and savory tarts, then they load up on clothes, shoes, hats and head to the Massi refuge in Oulx.

Here in recent weeks, with a capacity of 70 seats, they found themselves having to accommodate up to 190 people: this is the effect of the long wave of summer landings. The comings and goings are continuous, many spend a few hours and then continue their journey, but at night the journey is longer because there are no buses up to Claviere so the last 16 km to the border are done on foot, then you have to enter on the paths to cross the border. Although – according to the volunteers – around half of the people are ultimately rejected in Briançon, 100 people arrive almost every day.

What you see when stopping at one of these points on the railway is an uninterrupted flow of people, punctuated by the arrival of buses and trains. It's a flow that can't be stopped, just talk to these young people aged 18/20, they have the energy and strength to walk all the way to Alaska. A democratic country cannot stop them with laws, it can slow down, create unfavorable conditions, let them sleep in the open, but they will carry on.

«Two years ago – says a volunteer – an Afghan family arrived in France in the middle of winter, the thermometer read -2, everyone walked in silence and the two children were picked up when the snow was above knee height. I had wondered if it was the strength of desperation or that of hope that had pushed them on that long journey, I don't know, but as Colson Whitehead says: «Dark and arduous is the road along which the pilgrim travels. But beyond this valley of sadness lie the fields of infinite days" because to paraphrase Whitehead "sometimes the useful illusion of people is better than the useless truth of governments".

Fabrizio Floris

NP Dicembre 2023