Two Swiss held in France for ‘escorting’ migrants released

The activists were reacting to an attempt by a right-wing group called Génération Identitaire to block the Col de l'Échelle that weekend. Keystone

Two Swiss men and an Italian woman held in custody after helping around 20 migrants to enter France have been released. They had been in pre-trial detention since April 26 are expected to stand trial in late May. 

The Swiss activists, aged 26 and 24, were released from the Baumettes prison in Marseille in the evening, their lawyers said on Thursday. According to the prosecutor’s office of French town of Gap, they were arrested for “aiding the entry of foreigners without the right paperwork into the country in an organised operation” on April 22. The two Geneva residents were part of around 100 mostly French and Italian activists, who crossed the Montgenèvre pass in the French Alps at the Italian border with the migrants. 

They will have to stay put in Savoie until their trial has ended and are obliged to report every day to the nearest police station. According to their lawyer, the two are banned from using social networks to communicate about the case. 

The attempt to escort migrants over the border came after activists from a right-wing group called Génération Identitaire blocked the Col de l’Échelle, six kilometres (3.7 miles) from the border, which they consider to be a “strategic point of passage for illegal immigrants”. The group had created a “symbolic border” with barriers and unfurled a banner on the side of the mountain that said, “No Way”.

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