Every morning, on the esplanade located in front of the Irún City Hall, the same scene is repeated. No matter if it rains or is hot. That morning precisely the sky has not given a respite and the water falls incessantly. In the area there are several members of the Irungo Harrera Sarea, the Irun Reception Network. Minutes later, a group of migrants arrives at the information point that the Network has set up with a table and several chairs. The display takes place in full view of everyone, whether pedestrians going to their workplaces or those who are going to have their morning coffee in one of the cafes that border the square. “We consider that the immigration process is not shameful at all and that we had no reason to hide,” emphasizes Jon Aranguren, a member of the association.
Currently, the majority of migrants who arrive at the Plaza del Ayuntamiento in Irún have entered Europe through the Canary Islands and share the goal of crossing the border between Spain and France. For their part, the members of the association seek to do so safely and in the best conditions. According to the Network’s calculations, since 2018 it has served around 40,000 people. Currently, an average of between nine and ten people pass through the information point a day. Although the number of migrants assisted also fluctuates depending on transfers from the Canary Islands to the Peninsula or the reactivation and deactivation of the migratory routes that connect Africa with Spanish territory. “There have been times when we could be between 40-50 people on average and then, within the same years, moments when there has been no one, and other days, three or four people,” says another of the volunteers. the Network. In any case, the number of people who have crossed the border could be much higher, since not everyone passes through the morning information point.
It all started in 2018 with a change in migration flows. Until then, the majority of migrants seeking to reach the European Union (EU) opted to take the Central Mediterranean route, generally from Libya or Tunisia, disembarking in Italy or Malta. At that time, people who wanted to reach France had to cross the Alps. But in 2018, according to Frontex data, entries through this maritime route were drastically reduced by 80% compared to the previous year. In contrast, the Western Mediterranean route, which connects North Africa with the south of the Iberian Peninsula, was in 2018 the main route of entry into European territory. Many of the people who had landed in Spain headed towards the north of the Peninsula to reach France. In addition, at the end of 2019, the Atlantic route, which had been dormant since 2006, was reopened. People who began arriving through the Canary Islands and who wanted to reach France also chose to travel to the north to cross from Irun to the French town of Hendaye. .
The reactivation of these last two routes, which has led thousands of migrants to cross the border between Spain and France through the Basque Country, brought with it an increase in controls by the French police. And with these controls the blockage was evident. “In June 2018, we found 20-30 black kids who had been there for several days in a motorcycle shed at the Irun train and bus station and we asked them what was happening,” Aranguren reveals. At that moment the machinery was activated to provide support to the migrants who were stuck at the border. At first, the group was in charge of preparing food for about 70 people a day and finding a place for them to sleep and wash. A few months later, a temporary reception center managed by the Red Cross was launched to cover the basic needs of migrants in transit. Six years later, the Network is still active but with other functions.
The work of the collective, made up of between 30 and 40 active people, begins at night at the Irún bus station, where the Gautxori group (night bird, in Spanish) waits for the arrival of migrants from the last buses from Madrid, Seville or Bilbao, as detailed by Aranguren. The members of the Network who have organized to go to the station accompany them to the reception facility managed by the Red Cross and are informed of the installation of the information point that will take place the following morning in the Town Hall square. At this location they are given general information about what awaits them in Europe, the ways to obtain regularization and they are advised that once settled in France, they should look for an NGO that can help them.
The key to the information point in the square is advice on how to cross the border safely. Volunteers provide information to migrants about public transportation to reach Bayonne, the first city after the crossing with a reception center for migrants in transit. Aranguren details that they are informed about “how they can use it, what schedules they have and where the bus stops are.” In this sense, they have been recommended to avoid crossing places where they put their lives at risk, such as crossing the Bidasoa River. “Now the issue of the river has been erased from their minds because they have learned that nine people have died,” says the activist.
To make the crossing, many migrants arrive in Irún dressed in a tracksuit that the host NGO has provided them and that makes them look like each other or with clothing that is inappropriate for the weather conditions that day. For this reason, the Network has a wardrobe service thanks to which they provide appropriate clothing to migrants. In the place located 50 meters from the square, one of the volunteers of this service, Charo, a woman with a friendly manner, details that when they come with “uniformed NGO clothing” they are offered clothing that meets their needs and with which They can also feel good. The clothes are perfectly organized and divided by sizes, among which down jackets, hats or gloves predominate, necessary garments for this area of the Peninsula. On this rainy and cold day, a young migrant who arrived in the Canary Islands the previous year was able to grab a coat and some slippers. They also provide backpacks, since as the volunteer explains, there are young people who come with bags that would make it difficult for them to cross the border easily.
Given the possibility that the members of the Network could be singled out by the Spanish authorities, Aranguren recognizes that this matter poses a persistent danger: “With the authorities we have the sword of Damocles, as to when the Spanish State will be interested in criminalizing us in the same way.” that the French State has sought to criminalize the NGOs on the other side,” he emphasizes. The activist clarifies that this is a border that does not share the characteristics that others have but, in any case, that fulfills a function: “Borders only serve to defend privileges. What the EU does is not so much on the internal borders but on the external ones, to continue protecting Europe’s stronghold, our privileges with respect to Africa or Latin America.”
The hands that welcome the other side of the border
Cold, rainy weather and a dark gray sky contrast with the warmth and patterns of yellow, green and red colors that reign in a space serving migrants in Bayonne. The Diakité association manages this place where young migrants who already reside in the municipality, and especially those who have arrived from Irun and then Hendaye, lay the first stone of what will be their life in France. “This is an anchor point. It is the first place in the French State where they have been welcomed,” emphasizes Lutxi Bortayrou, one of the members of the association. For the majority of migrants, Bayonne is once again another transit point, as Irun and Hendaye already were, since many will travel by bus to Marseille, Lyon or Paris.
Many young people whose first steps on European soil were taken in the Canary Islands pass through this space next to the street, with drawings of the flags of Senegal or Guinea Conakry. Today, they are the majority. Like those of Issa and Mamadou, who currently reside in Bayonne. They are from Guinea Conakry and arrived in Gran Canaria in November 2023. They remember their stay at the Canarias 50, their afternoons along the Las Canteras promenade and some words they learned in the Spanish classes they taught at the center and that they now use throughout this conversation. Most of the boys come from French-speaking countries such as Mali, Ivory Coast, Guinea Conakry or Senegal.
Among the shared laughter of all the young people who come one of the four times the resource opens a week, the volunteers provide them with a change of clothes for those who need it, a hygiene kit with gel and shampoo for those who are going to continue their road, basic health care and information on various issues such as French immigration law, the reception of minors and associations that provide help to migrants. Lutxi emphasizes that the entity’s work is above all urgent. “When you see 15-year-old kids who we know are going to live on the streets, who are going to have jobs where they are going to be exploited, it makes you sad, but we have to help them,” he emphasizes.
One of the first smiles that migrants receive comes precisely from this volunteer who joined the association since it was launched. Remember how in 2018 many migrants began to get off at the Bayonne bus stop with the purpose of continuing on their way to different French cities. He says that at that moment people mobilized and asked the mayor of the city to open a center where migrants could sleep and eat before continuing their trip. “The mayor was already thinking about it and there was a very positive response,” says Lutxi. This resource, managed by the Bayonne City Council, is a transit center where migrants can stay for a few days before continuing their journey through France. In addition, the volunteer adds that the mayor also incorporated a bus stop in front of the resource so that migrants would have better access to public transportation. It was on those same dates that the association emerged that took the name of one of the young people they helped: “We asked one of the first boys who arrived his name and he told us Diakité. Well then we are going to call ourselves Diakité,” he recalls.
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