Hostile Environments

"The problem is not the snow, the problem is the border” (Tazzioli, 2019). As Italy’s laws tighten, more and more arrivals are trying to find a way into France - even via an alpine pass in winter. More and more migrants freezes to  death after crossing Alps into France from Italy.They needed to scramble over peaks of about 2 km in height to avoid the police and needed to hide in the snow to make themselves invisible.They do without any proper equipment, water, food supplies that Hypothermia is the major risk for them. They don’t know the way. Only the star light their road at the nighttime that they seek to be rendered invisible in the darkness. They could have fallen into the huge crevices created by the avalanche and their bodies would have been hard to find the following spring. So it is simply not known how many actually die inevitably as a result of crossing the Alps in winter.

The hostile environment not only refers to this natural environment, but which makes the migrants ‘ life different and dangerous. The police also use these “weaponization of the terrain” to push them into danger.

This video aims to invite people to look at current migrants’ passages across the Alps beyond their volatile and often invisible presence. We need to understand the ‘hostile environment’ which is invisible behind these cold cases. A re-examination of how the Alps as a 'natural barrier' is being used as a weapon to stop migrants from entering the country.