Nicolò Giraldi December 20, 2023
The suspension of the Schengen Agreement and the associated closure of the borders between Slovenia and Italy are a bluff. There are no checks at smaller border crossings and migrants coming from the Balkan route know that to get to Trieste they have to walk – as they always have – through the forest behind the city. I walked the 70 kilometers that separate Croatia from our country in northeast Istria. Not even a shadow of police and border guards guarding the borders. The closure of the borders decided by the Italian government after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th is a farce that only becomes apparent when the main border crossings are crossed. But besides the alleged terrorist threat lurking in the Balkans, one of the reasons for the decision was the desire to stem the flow of migrants – or at least try to stop it (in the photo above, Today.it journalist, Nicolò Giraldi , during the journey from Croatia to Trieste – Photo Giovanni Aiello-TriestePrima).
But when it comes to borders that divide forests and clearings, there is almost never anyone checking migrants. Before I arrived in Italy, the Slovenian police intercepted me twice, in the forest behind Val Rosandra. The first is near the railway, near Podgorje. They arrive in an unmarked car. They have no sirens or flashing lights. An officer quickly gets out of the car. He comes towards me, asks for documents, where I'm going and where I want to cross the border. This last detail is important: especially for the police SUV that will be waiting for me a few kilometers further, right on the route that leads to the border with Italy.
So the Slovenian police released me
The first check takes a few minutes, but I make it back onto the road almost immediately. Two hours later I emerge from the bush northwest of the town of Črnotiče and cross an asphalt road. A few seconds pass and a black SUV blocks me. “Why Trieste-Podgorje and Trieste again?” they ask me when they register me a second time. “I’m from Croatia,” I answer. There's a dog in the car. Barks a few times. They are at a loss, perhaps they suspect that I am a human trafficker, a passeur. But I am a European citizen and sufficiently equipped to look like a hiker. They check the database and keep me there for a few minutes. Then they let me go. IM clean”.
Many of the almost 12,000 people who came to Trieste from the Balkan route this year have set foot on this route one foot at a time. “Hundreds of them were seen every day,” says a resident of Buzet, a town in Croatian Istria. “Today there are only a few, but we continue to see them.” The migrants' footpaths towards Italy mainly start from here. You arrive by bus from Rijeka. In summer the connection is daily. However, today the bus only runs on Thursdays. What I did in three days, the migrants can do in less than 20 hours. They drink energy drinks one after the other. There are cans of Redbull, Monster and Hells everywhere along the route.
When I arrive at Socerb Castle (San Servolo, on the border between Slovenia and Italy), it is raining constantly. I slide to the border. On the paths there are toothbrushes, almost untouched toothpastes, cans of mackerel, leather jackets, but also sports jackets, small shoes and slippers for children, “metals” (silver blankets), boots, woolen hats, umbrellas, strollers, cards for telephone calls, residence permits – torn. Everything frozen in a landscape that is embarrassingly desolate at the end of December.
The lie of the camera traps in the forest
Arrival in Italy only takes place after crossing the unmanned border. There is a white sign in Italian and Slovenian from the Cold War era: “State border at 70 meters” (at the end of the article the photo by Giovanni Aiello-TriestePrima). It was only after I saw the sign that I realized I had committed a violation. Without this clue, no one would be able to recognize it. And anyone who travels this path knows it very well. Over time it was modernized. Traveling without being “caught” by the police is not impossible, on the contrary. Despite the announcement of camera traps in the forest, the Italian Way lies on the major passes. Nobody patrols the forest. When I walk by, everyone walks by. As soon as I arrive in San Dorligo della Valle, I stop in front of the Carabinieri barracks. It overlooks the square. It is raining and the streets are deserted.
To get here, I walked for hours on the same metal railway sleepers (photo above by Giovanni Aiello-TriestePrima) that migrants from the Balkan route use to cross the Istrian border between Croatia and Slovenia. They were made by Ilva almost a century ago in the blast furnaces of Piombino. This is indicated by the printed stamp with the date: Year VIII of the fascist era. Nowadays almost no trains run on this route, but migrants prefer it to roads because they can easily hide there. In fact, the border crosses the tracks. But here too, like between Slovenia and Italy, there is no one controlling. A barbed wire fence that Ljubljana built many years ago runs along the sides of the route, but there are gaps everywhere to get through the tangle of steel.
Where the Italian border is not occupied
You don't see people along the route in December, apart from the tracks they leave without being picked up by anyone. Between Sveti Martin and Buzet I meet three guys. Two are carrying a shopping bag that appears heavy. They walk side by side. The third follows them. Looking at them, they don't seem to come from the same country. The facial features are different. It is not even certain that these are asylum seekers. They could be runners or companions. Or those who stay in Croatia to “sell” the route to newcomers in order to raise more money to repay debts incurred back home.
From spring 2024, Rijeka will be connected to Trieste by train. Migrants who continue to travel this route will no longer have to take a bus to Buzet and make their way to the Julian capital. They arrive directly at Opicina station behind you with a second class ticket. While you wait for that day, all you have to do is put one foot in front of the other to cross the borders that separate Croatia from Italy. It is a pleasure to pass along the paths of the Ilva or the karst paths. The migrants know it, the police know it, everyone knows it.
Continue reading Today.it's research and insights. Beatings of migrants and drugged children: the violence on the Balkan route