«It looks like a terrestrial Lampedusa. The flow of migrants along the Balkan route is uninterrupted. Every day dozens of them appear – explains an agent at the front – The fault is in Serbia, where many arrive without a visa”. From the beginning of the year to November 6, 14,600 arrived in Friuli Venezia Giulia, depending on the region.
And the terminus is Trieste with surges also in Gorizia and Udine. Between Thursday and Friday, the border police in the Julian capital tracked down 160 migrants, mostly Afghans and Pakistanis. And sometimes there are surprises, like the 50 from Burundi being spotted on a train, the Egyptians and Cubans flying visa-free to Moscow and then to Belgrade.
“We are Afghans. We come from Herat and it took a year,” says a young man with a backpack on his shoulder, who emerges from the darkness on the outskirts of the Julian capital. At 6 a.m., ten migrants lined up on one of the paved roads from nearby Slovenia. “Now don’t follow us anymore,” suggests Mir Wais, who leads the group.
Thanks to the Google map positions already recorded on the phone, they know exactly where to go by turning onto a wide path. Maybe someone is waiting for them for a change of clothes, train tickets, or new information. The travel expenses amount to 9,000 euros. My family in Kashmiri and the relatives we have in Europe collected them,” admits a migrant who arrived from the Balkan route in the night. Money that mostly ends up in the pockets of smugglers to cross the most difficult borders “hidden in cars or vans”.
Lorenzo Tamaro from the police union Sap explains: “In an emergency, the situation cannot always be managed. We need enough staff. The agents are too few.’
The numbers have exploded in recent months: around 1,900 arrived in Trieste in October alone, compared to 500 the year before. For Regional Security Councilor Pierpaolo Roberti, “It is an explosion due to several factors: the easing of controls in Turkey, visa liberalization in Serbia and also the change of government in Italy. Illegal migrants leave before more drastic measures are taken”.
On Monday, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani will be in Pristina and Belgrade “to promote stability and reduce the risk of new migration flows”. The increase along the Balkan route is 170% compared to last year with 106,396 tracks of migrants.
In Muggia, near Trieste, near Slovenia, a committee of citizens concerned about the increase in arrivals has been newly formed: “There are eight entry points. The illegal immigrants arrive by the dozen every day, waiting for their passeur. Others wait near the Al Ponte restaurant, or others get on the 20 bus in front of the Montedoro shopping center, which will take them to the center of Trieste.
The current mostly moves on foot. One of the young men blocked by Strade Safe soldiers at a bus stop on the outskirts of Trieste recites the stages: «Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy. We walked the last stretch for ten days». When agents or soldiers intercept them, they raise a finger and say the only English word they know: “asylum” (asylum). Nobody can send them back like the French are quietly doing in Ventimiglia. Tamaro has no doubts: «In the past we were admitted back to Slovenia, a European country that respects human rights. If this process does not resume, we will continue to be the Lampedusa of the Northeast».