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Résumé anglais |
Since 2015, France has stepped up controls at its border with Italy in the area near Briançon, a town in the Hautes-Alpes. Mobile patrols in the mountains are tasked with spotting, arresting and removing migrants considered to be ‘ESI' (illegal foreign nationals), with the filtering role of the Alpine border reflected in a policy of targeting and expelling the bodies of illegalised migrants. The colossal resources dedicated to this migration control apparatus mean that migrants have to brave the hostile conditions of the mountains to avoid systematic pushbacks and violation of their rights. The particular climatic conditions and topography of this border space allow the authorities to invoke the “risks” incurred in order to present themselves as pursuing a sheltering mission, adopting an ambivalent securitisation/humanitarian rhetoric to justify these controls. But the conditions under which arrested migrants are granted access to healthcare remain arbitrary, and border crossings have a significant impact on health: the border is an exhausting and injuring space. In opposition to this border violence, the practices of rescue and care, whether they are asserted via maraude outreach patrols in the mountains or at the Terrasses Solidaires centre in Briançon, challenge the biopower that the state claims for itself over the lives of illegalised migrants. The occupation and appropriation of the space by maraude volunteers is helping to redefine the border, while at the same time challenging the relations of domination that shape the border space. The conflictual relations between the police and Médecins du Monde volunteer health workers centre on the diagnoses made by the latter, and decisions to provide medical care and shelter to the migrants they meet in the mountains. When these decisions clash with police controls, health workers find themselves having to negotiate, and to emphasise the vulnerability of these people and their right to receive care. |
