The French government has ramped up controls at its border with Italy, checking trains for illegals on a daily basis and pushing back thousands to Italy so far this year.
Members of the French National Police, along with civil volunteers, have increased checks at the Italian border close to the town of Ventimiglia after the government announced it would be tightening security, despite the open borders Schengen treaty between European Union member-states.
The new policy comes after tensions between the France and Italy over Italian leader Giorgia Meloni’s government refusing to allow a migrant “taxi” NGO ship to dock in Italy last month, resulting in it later docking in the French port of Toulon with around 280 migrants on board.
The new policy has also led to longer wait times for vehicles looking to cross into France from Italy, as police have also increased checks on cars and lorries along the border, with ten border points seeing extra personnel stationed at them, the EU-funded website InfoMigrants reports.
According to French police chief Emmanuelle Joubert, French authorities have found around 28,000 illegals in the Alpes-Maritimes region, with most of the migrants sent back to Italy.
Italians have criticised the new French policy, with the president of the Ligurian region, Giovanni Toti, saying: “It is a substantial violation of the Schengen treaty, which is meant to allow for free movement across borders within the zone.”
France has also pulled out of a migrant redistribution deal which saw the country pledged to take in 3,500 migrants from EU border countries such as Italy, Spain and Greece — although despite agreeing to the deal in June, France had only taken in 38 people by the time the government pulled out of it.
France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin also stepped up his rhetoric against Prime Minister Meloni’s government last month, claiming that Italy acted like an “enemy” of France.
“I am very surprised that lawmakers who call themselves patriots prefer lashing out at the [French] government rather than the Italians,” Darmanin said, upbraiding anti-mass migration politicians sympathetic to Meloni’s stand against illegal immigration.
“Indeed, madam, you are not always patriotic when you have to ally yourself with the enemies, those who are attacking France at this moment,” he added, addressing populist National Rally politician Mathilde Paris during a session of the French parliament.