VIDEO. "I'll try my luck again and it will work!" “: these young migrants turned back at the border dream of France

Junior, Yakuba, Marline and Jean fled their countries, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali and Cameroon, to try a new life in France. "I left my mother, my little sisters whom I haven't seen for three years and my son, of whom I haven't heard from, it's not for pleasure that I came here" says the young Cameroonian Marline, in the premises of the association for helping foreigners La Cimade in Bayonne. The border between Hendaye and Irun in the Basque Country has become a nerve center for these young migrants who dream of reaching France. "It's not easy for us, you have to pay up to 150 euros for a" taxi-mafia "to cross the bridge", explains the Malian Yakuba. This border separating Spain from France is the last obstacle to cross for these young migrants who have abandoned everything.

On the Santiago bridge, which crosses this river between Irun and Hendaye, the French police check the vehicles.

The parallel pedestrian bridge is closed by two mesh barriers almost three meters high.

Jean and his Cameroonian comrades try to cross the bridge on foot, but they are blocked by border guards.

“The police blocked our way, asking us where we were going.

We said: “we are going to France, we don't have the documents.

They asked us to come to the police station asking us to show them the documents.

We told them: “we don't have any documents, we don't have any papers.

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On the French side of the border, police numbers have doubled since the reestablishment in 2015 of controls after the Paris attacks, according to the Ministry of the Interior. Nearly a third of the crossing points between Spain and France are currently closed, officially due to the pandemic. On the Spanish side, two police officers denounce, on condition of anonymity, the legal vagueness at the border and confide in feeling "overwhelmed" in the face of the "ping-pong" of migrants taken back to the border by France and then released, for lack of means. , in Spain and who end up trying their luck again.

A few days after filming, Yakuba achieved his breakthrough by running across the bridge.

The Ivorian Junior, sent back to Hendaye, will try his luck again in the coming days, like Jean and his companions in misfortune.

"We won't give up," said Junior.