A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #353 - Basque Country - Etorkinekin Diakité: A federation of associations in solidarity with migrants Friday, October 10, 2025, by Courant Alternatif (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

There is a unique context in the Basque Country, a local dynamic of 
support for exiles rooted in a long history of smuggling and open arms 
to refugees. Basques are well-placed to understand migrants, since, 
since the end of the 19th century, many went to the Americas because of 
poverty. ---- Those in solidarity with migrants describe the Basque 
Country as a land of passage and welcome, as it was for those fleeing 
the Pétainist and Nazi regimes, the dictatorships of Salazar and Franco, 
the repression by the Spanish "young democracy" aided by its spies 
(Spanish Basque Battalions, GAL) against independence activists in the 
South (a campaign then led to accommodate them was called "one refugee, 
one roof"). But the welcome was also made, and continues to be made, in 
favor of those fleeing poverty, hunger, violence of all kinds, wars ... 
In the Basque Country, associations of solidarity with exiles remain 
very much alive. The Etorkinekin Diakité federation (1) is one of them.

Presentation of the federation
Initially, in 2015, it was a Collective; In 2021, it was transformed 
into a Federation called Etorkinekin Diakité Solidariteìs migrants - 
Etorkinekin Federazioa". It brings together 12 associations throughout 
the northern Basque Country as well as individuals, representing around 
two hundred people. The local context has changed significantly since 
2018; the number of migrants welcomed has increased considerably, a 
consequence of the change in migration routes which have passed and 
still increasingly pass through Spain, from sub-Saharan countries, via 
the desert or the Canaries.
The federation pursues two objectives by establishing two commissions 
that operate collectively and autonomously, and which report on their 
activities through an internal liaison journal.
A "solidarity support" commission works to strengthen and coordinate the 
reception, accommodation and support of migrants in the Basque Country. 
This is achieved through regular meetings and exchanges between members 
of local associations, a youth group (which deals with unrecognized 
minors, see box 1), and a psychosocial support group.
A "public action" commission includes two components:

One addresses the issue of migrant employment (regularization through 
work) with the participation of Cimade, employee unions (LAB, 
Solidaires, FSU, CFDT, CGT construction, Labor Inspectorate) and 
discussions with entrepreneurs and employer associations. The 
objectives: to inform migrants about their rights as workers, even 
undocumented ones; to help them obtain these papers by detecting 
individual or possibly collective regularization opportunities; to gain 
a more precise vision of local practices and, if necessary, to take 
legal action against abusive employers. Regular consultations are organized.
The other component is responsible for providing information on the 
migration policies of Europe and France to denounce their harmful 
consequences; this is done through articles in the press, actions and 
mobilizations to demand a policy for welcoming migrants that respects 
their fundamental rights.
The actions are very varied and are carried out at the level of local 
associations and/or the federation: concerts, interventions in schools, 
stands at markets or on the occasion of large mobilizations (farmers, 
housing, May 1st, Korrika for the Basque language, Aberri Eguna - Basque 
Homeland Day...), round tables, film debates in local cinemas; 
conferences (Darmanin law, European pact, Retailleau decrees, situation 
at the CRA - administrative detention center - in Hendaye, forum on the 
theme of migration and work...),

A "Mugarik gabe" ("without borders") festival was organized in September 
and October 2024; a second edition will take place this year, providing 
information and debating issues concerning migration and solidarity, but 
also highlighting the struggles waged for a dignified welcome for exiles.
In addition, observation work at the Irun-Hendaye border (3), monitored 
daily by French police, is carried out each year alongside members of 
CAFI (Coordination of Interacting Actions at Internal Borders) and Anafé 
(National Association for Border Assistance for Foreigners) with a view 
to recording rights violations: police checks based on appearance, 
illegal pushbacks, etc. The hunt for exiles is still as prevalent as 
ever and forces migrants to take more and more risks: since 2021, nine 
of them have lost their lives at the Basque border.
These public actions are carried out as much as possible with other 
local political, trade union and associative forces. This is how the 
demonstrations called on a national and international scale are relayed: 
International Refugee Day, Solidarity March, Commér'action (which pays 
tribute each year to the thousands of deaths on the road to exile 
because of padlocked and militarized borders).
And, of course, mobilizations linked to local situations are organized, 
against the closure of the Hendaye-Irun border, against the CRA of 
Hendaye, against the arrival of Retailleau at the border and in Biarritz 
(as on April 11), against cases of repression, arrests of migrants 
and/or solidarity... And the federation is also involved, with its 
specificity, in demonstrations on general themes (housing, 
anti-speculation, health...)
Externally, the Federation has created and continues to expand a network 
of contacts and exchanges with other collectives, sister associations in 
the southern Basque Country as well as in Béarn for exchanges of 
information and joint actions concerning in particular the unaccompanied 
minors. In France, the federation is part of a network created several 
years ago with associations active on the three borders: Tous Migrants, 
La Roya Citoyenne (Alps), Plateforme de Soutien aux migrants (Manche), 
ASTI 66 (Catalonia).

Repression against Solidaires increases...
Solidarity activists, including members of the local Bidasoa group, on 
the Hendaye-Irun border, who are trying to evade police checks on 
migrants by accompanying them by car to the Pausa center in Bayonne, 
have been subjected to repeated checks (three of them were shocked to 
discover that they had had a bug installed under their car for several 
months) and police custody. The
most recent arrest resulted in 7 activists being charged with aiding "in 
an organized gang the entry, movement, and stay in France of illegal 
immigrants" and being summoned to appear before the Bayonne court. As 
part of the Korrika, a race of more than 2,000 km across the Basque 
Country, which brings together thousands of people for around ten days 
to promote the Basque language, 36 exiles entered France between Irun 
and Hendaye, mingling with other participants in the race. Around twenty 
associations, unions, and political parties claimed responsibility for 
this "act of civil disobedience." A demonstration in support of the 
accused supporters, bringing together around 2,500 people, from Irun to 
Béhobie via Hendaye, took place on January 28. Eighty organizations and 
several hundred individuals signed a symbolic act of self-incrimination 
by which they acknowledge having also participated in accompanying 
people on part of their migration journey. This text, entitled "I 
Accuse," contests the accusations against the Hendaye 7 in order to 
better symbolically turn them against Fortress Europe and its murderous 
anti-migration policies.
The judgment against the "7", which was due to take place at the end of 
January, was postponed until October 7, at the request of the lawyers to 
complete the file.

The border falls
...and migrants, subject to increased controls
According to the prefect of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, the department 
was, in 2025, "the first gateway to France for illegal immigration." 
Thus, at the end of March, the government deployed for the first time 
the "border force," mobilizing reinforcements from the police, 
gendarmerie, customs, and army. The territory was thus the scene of an 
unprecedented show of force to control "migratory flows," spanning 
several days, bringing together nearly 350 repressive personnel 
mobilized (4 times more than in "normal" times) and deployed at the 19 
border crossing points. The prefect boasted of having "intercepted" 224 
migrants handed over to the Spanish authorities or subjected to an OQTF, 
or detained in the Hendaye CRA. He promised new police operations. He 
also announced the creation of a specialized intelligence unit dedicated 
to the fight against "illegal" immigration and people-smuggling networks.

MNA, unaccompanied
and unrecognized minors

The federation's action has been strengthened to support unacknowledged 
minors (UMAs) not recognized by the department, who have been wandering 
on the Basque coast in increasing numbers since 2024. Since
the inter-departmental fingerprint database has been generalized, a 
young person can no longer attempt to be recognized as a minor in 
another department. They therefore find themselves stuck in the 64 
department.
The time taken to appeal to the juvenile court can last a year and is 
very uncertain (here, 87% of young people are refused). While waiting 
for their minority to be recognized, young people are on the streets and 
most schools refuse them.
Hence a battle with the mayors of the Basque Country urban community 
(CAPB), on the one hand for an emergency and temporary accommodation 
solution in Pausa (2), which was hard-negotiated for 15 of them for a 
period of 8 months (others are housed with families, but the 
possibilities remain limited), on the other hand for all municipalities 
to get involved in the search for a lasting solution for these young 
people left on the streets and without protection. In addition, the 
federation is studying the possibility of a more sustainable collective 
housing project.
The federation also aims for young people to acquire more and more 
autonomy and collective capacities.

Demonstration in Hendaye following the death of a migrant
Limits and difficulties of solidarity action
There are many associations concerned with the fate of migrants in 
France, whether humanitarian or more political. The line between these 
two characteristics is not necessarily clear, since opening one's door 
and providing support to people whom a state leaves without rights and 
seeks to marginalize, exclude, or expel can be considered an act of 
resistance, and therefore ultimately political.
However, in the Etorkinekin Diakité federation, the distance is quite 
significant between those who act primarily for humanitarian reasons and 
those who try to contextualize what migration and the policies that 
accompany it mean in a capitalist world based on exploitation, 
hierarchies, and inequalities.
Certainly, the help and support provided to migrants are absolutely 
necessary, as they are threatened and deprived of any rights. They find 
themselves placed in an area where rights and living conditions are 
diminished, in a social and legal space situated between exclusion from 
citizenship and exclusion from the territory. Fortunately, there is no 
shortage of acts of kindness towards them within the population, despite 
attempts by governments and right-wing and far-right parties to reject 
them and make them scapegoats.
However, aid and outpourings of solidarity do not go very far and are 
not enough; they do not lead to tangible successes, except in small 
ways, on a case-by-case basis and in a random manner. Moreover, they are 
not satisfactory because they compensate for the shortcomings that the 
State knowingly maintains and they take charge of what should be the 
responsibility of an entire society; because, also, it is difficult to 
talk about solidarity when there is, whatever one may say, a hierarchy 
between helpers and those helped; this aid risks transforming those 
helped into those who are assisted; Moreover, very few migrants start to 
organize and take action once their situation has stabilized, as the 
fear of repression continues to weigh heavily. Aid replaces a struggle 
that should be waged together, as equals.

The actions carried out by the Etorkinekin federation in support of 
migrants are drops of water in the ocean of needs. But do we have a 
choice? What states are doing against migrants is a radical challenge to 
the majority of social gains (achieved). The deterioration of their 
rights contaminates the whole of society and prepares for the regression 
and deterioration of the rights of all. There is a need and an urgency 
to resist collectively and to mobilize for a policy of reception and 
solidarity based on equal rights, respect for the dignity and freedoms 
of all.

Kris, September 20

Contact Etorkinekin Diakité Federation by email: contact at Etorkinekin.eus

Notes
1- Etorkinekin means "with those who arrive"; the Diakité association, 
affiliated with the federation, has a location in Bayonne where migrants 
can obtain clothing, hygiene kits, or an interview with a doctor.
2- The PAUSA reception center was opened in the summer of 2018: it 
allows migrants to stop for 3 days/3 nights. Several dozen of them have 
been accommodated there. This center, located in Bayonne, is managed by 
the town hall and financed by the Communauté d'agglomération du Pays 
basque (CAPB). In February 2025, the CAPB obtained a refund of nearly 
one million euros from the State, which had been convicted in court for 
failing to provide emergency accommodation, for its first year of operation.
3- French land border controls were reinstated after the Paris attacks 
in 2015, initially only temporarily. But while the Schengen Agreement 
provides for free movement between signatory European states, this 
exceptional measure has since been renewed every six months, in the name 
of "the terrorist threat," by the French state alone. Abertzale 
activists (autonomists or independence supporters) do not recognize a 
border in the middle of Basque territory; this is one of the reasons why 
they demand that the Hendaye-Irun crossing be freed and that the 
barriers there be removed.

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4527
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