Restrictive migration policies have made Europe’s mountainous alpine borders even more perilous for the migrants crossing them. A distinctive citizen-led approach to mountain rescue in the Hautes-Alpes is helping to reduce the risks.

Since France reintroduced border controls with Italy in 2015, containment measures have increased along the border’s coastal area and on the main train and bus lines. As a result, migrants arriving through the Balkan and Mediterranean routes have increasingly re-routed their journeys into the adjacent alpine region.[1] As migrants began crossing the rugged snow-covered terrain at night, the first cases of hypothermia, frostbite, amputation and death emerged in the Hautes-Alpes.

Locals with deep knowledge of the terrain initiated early rescue efforts, which grew into structured volunteer-led mobile units, called maraudes. These ensure a nightly presence in the mountains, alongside daytime efforts to secure and level the snow-covered paths. Moving towards a joint approach, local organisation Tous Migrants and Médecins du Monde partnered to create mobile rescue and assistance units bringing together medical professionals, locals with terrain familiarity drawn from the maraudes, and volunteers from other regions.[2] The mobile units’ operations are intimately tied to the landscape and contrast in various ways with rescue in other terrains. Due to the nature of the terrain and the type of cross-border mobility, data on crossings is incomplete. However, more than 20,000 pushbacks were recorded at the Montgenèvre border post in the Hautes-Alpes between 2016 and 2023, and at least 145 migrants have died at Alpine borders since 2015.[3]

Humanitarian efforts at the Alpine border have generated a wealth of knowledge through the obstacles they have faced and the experiences they have acquired. Of particular note are three approaches to saving lives and seeking justice for migrants crossing mountainous borders: 1) setting up co-piloted mobile rescue units in the mountains; 2) engaging with border forces and disseminating legal guidance; and 3) investigating border deaths and pursuing justice.

Setting up co-piloted mobile rescue units

In response to the growing number of injuries and deaths at the border and the increasing barriers to aid, Tous Migrants and Médecins du Monde formalised a partnership in 2019 to create joint mobile units. The partnership agreement spells out each organisation’s responsibilities, noting that the mobile units are jointly piloted by a Tous Migrants maraudeur – member of a maraude – with intimate knowledge of the terrain, and a Médecins du Monde health-care professional. The health-care professional is responsible for all medical decisions, while the maraudeur is responsible for all logistical decisions relating to the geographic and climatic context.

These volunteer citizen-led mobile units patrol the Hautes-Alpes mountain paths between Briançon, Montgenèvre and the Clarée valley at night and assist migrants in distress. This includes providing emergency blankets, warm tea and dry clothing, conducting rapid health assessments, bringing people to safety and shelter, and calling State rescue services in the most severe situations. The operations are always solely aimed at reducing risks and assisting people in distress to prevent loss of life. As Médecins du Monde’s Transalpine Migration Programme coordinator notes, anyone walking in the mountains on a dark winter night, other than a professional alpinist, is inevitably at risk and helping thus becomes a duty rather than an offence. Echoing rescue at sea, the coordinator compared Médecins du Monde’s vehicle to a humanitarian vessel: “As long as people are in this vehicle, just as they would be on a boat, [the border guards] should not stop us from doing our work. We need to bring them to safety.”[4]

In this co-piloting model, Médecins du Monde provides the humanitarian aid vehicle emblazoned with its logo and a Tous Migrants member drives it. Tous Migrants, based in Briançon, possesses the local and experiential knowledge required to navigate the borderland, especially in the dark. Meanwhile, Médecins du Monde provides essential medical care to migrants while also working to secure broader recognition of the issues at stake. Recently, the prefectural office recognised the legitimacy of Médecins du Monde’s vehicle, thereby reducing some of the barriers to humanitarian access. In addition, leveraging medical authority in border negotiations can be critical to resolving emergency situations and ensuring medical needs are prioritised during border procedures.

The alpine example highlights a distinctive approach to rescue and solidarity which connects mountaineering principles of assistance with medical and humanitarian expertise. In 2017, Guides Sans Frontières addressed an open letter to the French president raising concerns over the dangers faced by migrants at alpine borders. Representing a collective of mountain professionals, they emphasised that safety, rescue and solidarity lie at the core of their profession’s esprit de cordée. This expression, commonly used to denote team spirit and camaraderie, originates from corde – rope – a mountaineering symbol of mutual assistance and equality. This esprit de cordée challenges traditional hierarchies in humanitarian work. Early mountain rescue and assistance efforts were predicated on equality and interdependence among all participants involved.

Engaging with border forces and disseminating legal guidance

The role of law enforcement is both significant and complex at the Hautes-Alpes border, with around 250 officers stationed along the mountainous frontier.[5] These consist of border police, assisted by officers drawn from mobile gendarmerie squadrons, at times reinforced by soldiers from the Operation Sentinelle. All these entities operate under different hierarchies, follow separate directives and use distinct equipment. The mobile gendarmerie squadrons are deployed on three-week mandates with often limited prior training on the border context or asylum laws. Witnessing repeated occurrences of ambush and chase tactics which resulted in severe injuries and put migrants’ lives at risk, Tous Migrants quickly identified the need to engage with border forces and develop educational materials to prevent loss of life.

In collaboration with the États Généraux des Migrations,[6] Tous Migrants published a guide for law enforcement officers entitled Au nom de la loi (In the name of the law). This reader-friendly booklet outlines officers’ rights and obligations during border procedures relating to respect for life, assistance to persons in distress and the use of force. It cites international, regional, bilateral and national legal frameworks, as well as the French Internal Security Code (Article R. 434-5) and Penal Code (Article 122-4) which enshrine officers’ right to refuse manifestly illegal orders that seriously compromise public interest and their personal liability when executing them.

Currently in its second edition, the guide has served as a critical resource and hundreds have been distributed to law enforcement officers during border encounters. However, lessons have emerged that will inform the drafting of the third edition. Since 1945, France has passed an average of one new immigration law every two years and a total of 118 legislative texts directly addressing immigration.[7] This legislative hyperactivity forces humanitarian actors to constantly adapt and update guidance, at the risk of obsolescence and loss of credibility. To overcome this, Tous Migrants plans to further anchor the next edition in fundamental rights and limit references to fluctuating laws and policies, thereby ensuring longer-lasting relevance. Balancing the need to respond to ever-changing policies while pursuing their own activities remains a major challenge for humanitarian actors at the border. Some view these constant shifts as a tactic to sow confusion, exhaust those trying to help, and divert civil society and humanitarian organisations’ attention. Organisations must therefore balance the need to mobilise around legal and policy changes, while simultaneously rising above the terms of these debates to remain focused on preventing loss of life. The third edition will finish with several real-life anonymised testimonies of officers who have successfully challenged unlawful orders at the border, giving the booklet further force.

Investigating border deaths and pursuing justice

Despite significant rescue efforts, at least 145 migrants have died at alpine borders since 2015, 11 of whom died and five of whom went missing specifically at the Hautes-Alpes border.[8] Among them was Blessing Matthew, a Nigerian woman whose body was found in the Durance River in May 2018, two days after mobile gendarmes attempted to apprehend her in the upstream village of La Vachette. The French authorities opened an investigation into her death and subsequently dismissed it without attributing responsibility. Seeking truth and justice, Blessing’s family and Tous Migrants initiated further inquiries into the circumstances leading to her death.

Partnering with investigative agency Border Forensics, they conducted a counter-investigation using spatio-temporal analysis, a testimony from Blessing’s fellow traveller reporting a police chase, cartographic evidence and spatial event reconstruction. The findings highlight inconsistencies between the mobile gendarmes’ statements and reveal a sequence of actions and omissions that are likely to have caused Blessing to fall and drown in the Durance. This counter-investigation builds on a growing corpus of initiatives by groups such as Forensic Architecture and Forensic Oceanography which employ scientific and visual methods to investigate and document violence. Using these innovative methods and corroborating evidence to reproduce missing images is particularly important in mountainous terrain where the rugged landscape can conceal violence.

Although substantial time, effort and resources were invested in taking Blessing’s case to the European Court of Human Rights, the Court considered the case and declined to reopen the investigation in January 2024. From a legal perspective, the counter-investigation is thus considered unsuccessful. However, from a broader perspective, it shed public and media light on the need to critically investigate the causes of migrant deaths, which are all too often classified as ‘accidental’ or caused by ‘natural elements’ with their cases soon closed. In Border Forensics’ words, this context makes it “all the more important that the voices of the survivors be heard and these investigations be presented beyond the forums of the law, including in cultural spaces, so that we may collectively refuse that the law’s blindness become our own.”[9]

Scaling lessons beyond the Alps

This case study sheds light on the significant and often overlooked contributions of local and citizen-led approaches to rescue and assistance along dangerous mountainous journeys. Migrants have long taken harsh, high-altitude paths, crossing the Andes, Himalayas and Pyrenees. The perils along these journeys are shaped and exacerbated by migration policies and border practices. Against this backdrop, this study highlights innovative approaches to saving lives and seeking justice in the Alps, which merge humanitarian principles, medical ethics and mountaineering solidarity. The mobile units’ co-piloting model demonstrates how humanitarian organisations and locals with deep terrain knowledge can collaborate to effectively navigate, reduce risks, and save lives in extreme terrains – a framework which could be adapted for rescue in forests, deserts and other harsh landscapes.

 

Elisa Sisto
DPhil candidate
Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford
elisa.sisto@qeh.ox.ac.uk

With gratitude to Tous Migrants, Médecins du Monde, Association Refuges Solidaires and the collective of humanitarian organisations operating at the French–Italian border, whose work and insights have been integral to writing this piece. Thank you for generously sharing your experiences and observations with me during my research in the Alps.

 

[1] In this article, the term ‘migrant’ refers collectively to refugees, asylum seekers and other people on the move at the French-Italian border.

^[2] ‘Rescue’ encompasses the medical care, sheltering, and risk-reduction activities carried out by the mobile units, called maraudes and unités mobiles de mise à l’abri (UMMA).

^[3]  Tous Migrants (2024) L’accueil des personnes exilées dans le Briançonnais et dans les Hautes-Alpes – Annexe 1 : aperçu quantitatif

‘Commémor’action à Briançon : dénoncer et rendre hommage’, Médecins du Monde, 25^th February 2025

^[4] Interview with the coordinator of Médecins du Monde’s Transalpine Migration Programme, 23^rd August 2024. Author’s translation.

[5] Fassin D and Defossez A-C (2024) L’Exil, toujours recommencé. Chronique de la frontière, Seuil.

[6] États Généraux des Migrations bring together local or national organisations working to support foreigners in France and to reform migration policy.

^[7] ‘Une « nouvelle loi » sur l’immigration qui s’ajoutera à une longue série de 118 textes depuis 1945’, Le Monde, 14^th October 2024

[8] ‘Commémor’action à Briançon : dénoncer et rendre hommage’, Médecins du Monde, 25^th February 2025

^[9] Visionscarto (2023) From the Sea to the River, the deadly violence of Europe’s borders

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