First Death of the Year: Migrant Found Charred Atop Train in Menton

By Lara-Nour Walton, Editor-In-Chief

What was his name — the suspected migrant found charred atop a train at Menton’s Garavan station? Where was he from? These questions remain unanswered by French and Italian authorities. Yet, the man’s intended destination was clear. Like so many other asylum seekers, he sought a better life somewhere beyond the French side of the Franco-Italian border.

The John Doe’s body emerged from the glow of an electrical fire at approximately 18:00 on Jan. 9, 2023. Train services were suspended for three hours as French first responders attempted to identify the victim. Agence France Presse reports that considering the chosen transit method, the man was likely an African asylum-seeker from Ventimiglia. An InfoMigrants article about the incident corroborates this presumption: “Francophone African migrants who arrive in Italy via the Mediterranean… often have connections and family and sometimes better job prospects over the border because of their knowledge of French.”

Desperate times, desperate measures

The suspected migrant’s death comes on the heels of tightening Franco-Italian border controls following a diplomatic row between the two countries. Tension skyrocketed in early November when a migrant rescue ship, the Ocean Viking, was refused safe port on the Italian coast and deferred to Toulon, France. The boat, run by humanitarian organization SOS law, were Italy’s responsibility. But, Giorgia Meloni does not care for decorum. The right-wing Italian Prime Minister, who ascended to power at the end of October, pledged to close off Italy to the vast majority of migrants and requested that other coastal countries accept rescue boats.

Ahmed Safi was hit by two cars on the A10 motorway as he attempted to traverse into France. He was only laid to rest after his body was dragged by a lorry to a tollbooth 500 meters away. Now that border controls have intensified, Italian newspaper, Il Messaggero, predicts that Ventimiglia’s migrants will be forced to resort to even more dangerous means of entering France. Transportation atop trains is only one of the many high-risk methods they may turn to.

Safi and the John Doe are far from the only victims of what The Roya-Citizen Association calls the “murderous border.” Director of the Ventimiglia branch of Caritas, Christian Papini, estimates that at least 33 people have died in Franco-Italian crossings since 2015, while Nice-based lawyer Mireille Damiano puts the number at 50.

Mediterranee, had been carrying 234 migrants since late October and filed 43 unsuccessful docking pleas with the Italian government before rerouting to France.

After authorizing the Ocean Viking’s port in Toulon, the French government denounced Italy for its refusal to accept the ship. Paris asserted that because the vessel had been in Italian water for an extended period, the migrants, under maritime

In a move described by Italy as “disproportionate” and “aggressive,” French authorities responded by effectively sealing the Franco-Italian frontier and withdrawing from the European Union’s Voluntary Solidarity Mechanism, introduced in June 2022.

Murderous Border

Clandestine Franco-Italian crossings have always been perilous and potentially deadly. On Nov. 7, 2022, 19-year-old Afghan refugee

First death of the year

The John Doe’s death grimly kicks off yet another year on the Franco-Italian frontier — his scorched body marks the first migrant fatality of 2023. It appears that Italy’s new unforgiving asylum seeker policy and France’s progressively stringent border controls are not inhibitors enough. Migrants, chasing ever-elusive livelihoods, will pursue cross-border journeys at any cost.