Western Route

After reaching Italy by sea or overland through the Balkans, migrants often look north, drawn by the promise of better opportunities in more prosperous European countries. Key crossing points are the railway hubs of Ventimiglia on the Ligurian coast and Oulx in the Piedmont Alps. From there, people embark on treacherous mountain paths, frequently without warm clothing or proper equipment, attempting to navigate high-altitude passes into France. This is the western Alpine route, a path shaped less by direct crisis and more by secondary movement within Europe.

France, like Italy, is often only a transit point. The real destinations often lie in countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom or the Benelux states, where labour demand, social protection, and established diasporas promise greater stability. Migration here becomes a strategy for long-term survival and family reunification rather than an emergency escape.

The crossing itself is physically demanding and often underestimated. Migrants walk for hours, sometimes at night, climbing mountain passes at altitudes of up to 2,000 metres. In winter, temperatures can fall to –10°C, and snow or ice makes trails barely visible. Many set out with ordinary shoes, thin jackets, and plastic bags carrying their belongings. Local volunteers frequently report cases of exhaustion, frostbite, and injury. What looks like a short distance on a map becomes a dangerous expedition when undertaken without preparation or guidance.

Because the route passes through remote terrain, precise numbers are difficult to establish. Still, local data offer insight into its scale. Between May and August 2023, more than 5,200 migrants passed through the small town of Oulx alone, relying on temporary shelters and humanitarian support before attempting the crossing. In Ventimiglia, around 60 to 70 migrants were reported to be living under a bridge in 2025, forming a visible but small part of a much larger, constantly changing flow. Even as overall irregular crossings across the EU declined by 38 percent in 2024, pressure along the Alpine border remained steady, suggesting that internal European routes persist even when external arrivals slow down.

The Dublin Regulation shapes the trajectory of these flows. Since asylum seekers are expected to apply in the first EU country they enter, many avoid official checkpoints and take informal paths through forests and mountains instead. French authorities patrol the area intensively, using drones, vehicles, and pushback practices to return people to Italy. Experts argue that such measures rarely stop migration; they simply redirect it into more dangerous and less visible spaces. As a result, the Alpine route becomes a quiet, hidden corridor of risk—one where geography, policy, and human determination intersect, and where the search for a better future often unfolds step by step across snow, stone, and uncertainty.