During the day, the Italian border town of Claviere is frequented by winter holidaymakers.
But as temperatures fall in the evening, a group of desperate migrants prepare to make a perilous journey in the hope of finding a better life in France.
Among them is 27-year-old Hasan, who clutches a hastily drawn map from a local refuge.
Hasan grew up in the Sudanese region of Darfur. When violence broke out in his village, he was forced to flee.
“I was taken to a prison and beat up… they were shooting at me from a distance with guns. My mother and brother helped me to get away,” Hasan said.
Now in Italy, Hasan is about to make another life-threatening journey, crossing an alpine border in a region where mountains reach 2500 metres, and temperatures plummet to minus 20 degrees.
He had earlier travelled across Chad, where he was robbed of his few possessions by bandits. Upon reaching Libya, he says he was forced to work by traffickers, before taking the perilous crossing to Italy in a smugglers’ boat.
From the Italian border town, Hasan has borrowed warm clothes from a local refuge, because he will be walking off-piste. Avalanches are a common danger, and migrants have died attempting to make the crossing.
The European Union says arrivals via Central Mediterranean countries like Italy increased in 2020 by 154 per cent, compared to 2019 arrivals.
Reporter Adnan Sarwar with Hasan in a refuge. Source: Dateline
It points to a trend wherein people are still fleeing north Africa regardless of COVID restrictions.
Dr Claire Loughnan from the University of Melbourne says ongoing conflict in the region is a factor for the increase in movement, but that COVID restrictions could also be a driver.
"The pandemic is potentially driving further movement as communities in some regions may be experiencing higher levels of economic deprivation resulting from COVID-19," Dr Loughnan told SBS.
Steph is a mountaineer who helps migrants prepare for the dangerous journey.
She finds Hasan walking along the side of a dark French road in the freezing conditions. He has successfully made the crossing, but Steph says the risk is not yet over.
She takes him to a volunteer-run refuge in the French town of Briancon, where migrants must stay inside until they can have their visa applications processed in Marseille.
“They are not safe because the police can catch them in Briancon and bring them back to Italy,” Steph says.
Under the EU’s Dublin Agreement, migrants can be sent back to the first EU country they arrived in. For many migrants like Hasan, that country is Italy.
Many migrants in Hasan’s situation end up in the southern port city of Marseille. But a few weeks after making the life-threatening crossing, Hasan has pressed on, leaving Briancon to continue his journey north.
Watch 'Death in the Alps' 9.30pm Tuesday on SBS and later on SBS On Demand.
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