argia.eus
INPRIMATU
Students know firsthand what migrants live on the border
  • In recent months, many schools have approached Irun to learn about the reality of migrants on their way with the help of their Reception Network. From the Irún Reception Network, we have been told that what generates the greatest impact on the students is the same limit as that adopted by the police.
Mikel Garcia Idiakez @mikelgi 2022ko maiatzaren 31
Irun eta Hendaia arteko zubia eta muga da ikasleek bisitatzen duten lekuetako bat (argazkia: Hernani BHI)

The Irun Reception Network has been present in schools for years, since they have been going to the students to talk about the reality of migration, but this course received another proposal from the Hernani Institute: The students and teachers who wanted to come to Irun. They had previously worked with the Amher association of Hernani, and it seemed important to Oihana Premio, a member of the Irun Reception Network, because "it gives us a little bit of fear that this will become an amusement park, 'let's see the migrants'". The Network ensures that this is not the case.

With Hernani's students, "we try to make visible the situation of migrants, how they come and what it means to reach Irun. They were high school students, and we told them that there are also people of their age, so that part of them might get into that situation." He approached the Irun train station and placed the students on the surface of the migrants: "Where are you and what are your tools to move forward? ". For example, they stressed the importance of mobiles on this route, as “it is a painful comment that is often made from ignorance, ‘look, they have mobiles, these migrants are less poor”, says Premio.

Another of the struggles of the Reception Network was that migrants on their way leave people in the street in overnight shelters, claiming that they do not meet the conditions. "We describe profiles to them and ask them, what do you think they are going to take and which do not in the hostel? ".

"We describe profiles to them and ask them, what do you think they are going to take and which do not in the hostel?"

Border barriers, police and students identified

It has also acted as with the students of Hernani with the centers that have come next, and around four hours of visit to the border between France and Spain is the moment that most impact and attention awakens the students, according to Oihana Premio. "The young people, for example, moved the fences and surprised the aggressive positions of the police, who screamed for shaking the barriers." From Galar he also tells us about the dynamics with some group: a dark-skinned student crossed the border alone and the French Police asked for documentation, but not the other students who left behind.

Only one dark-skinned student crossed the border and the French Police asked for documentation, but not the other students who left behind.

During these months they have had students from Irún, Hendaia, Bera, Baiona, Bilbao and Pamplona, as well as master students in the criminalization of solidarity in Deusto. However, these visits are not included in the programme of the Reception Network, but rather the approach to the centres. On the same day of the interview, Premio goes to the Toki Alai school in Irun to talk to her students about the multiple facets of migration. "Today's thing is special because students have won the prize in the UNESCO competition 'Give Me Life a Minute' and have decided to donate the prize money to the Irun Host Network."