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- Every year, hundreds of them leave Italy at night to illegally cross the French border.

- Yugoslavs, Italians, all the clandestines take a similar path that take them here at night in this forest of the No Man’s Land above Menton.

- And at dawn, exhausted, they catch a glimpse of the town lights.

- So, as an instinct, they follow a small path that seems to be leading straight there.

- It is the Path of Death that suddenly turns into a ravine.

- And among those who fall in this trap and only a few of them, sometimes reach to hold on a tree stump, at hanging threads.

- They can only call for help and wait for a help team to come and get them.

- And if they can, they have to wait, without moving, for some hours hanging in the void.

- Otherwise, they crush 100 meters down, all in the same place.

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- You manage this French riot squad, you heard calls, didn’t you?

- From the Path of Death… The Path of Death is this peak cliff where there is a big pine tree here.

- It is quite frequent, I think that the Path of Death is quite famous?

- Very frequent, as Italian and Yugoslav clandestines often try to cross the border through the Path of Death.

- They are attracted by Menton’s lights and it is the reason why they go by this place.

- I will not bother you any longer as the team must get ready and leave as soon as possible but what does generally happen, what happens?

- You are alarmed by calls, cries, aren’t you?

- The people who check our passports warn us at the headquarters and I send the mountain teams on the site.

- Well, those cries have been heard since this morning…

- At 7 am.

- And what is it like, does the entire team get ready?

- How long does it take?”

- About an hour, so generally it intends to join the clandestine, it tries to bring back to the bottom of the cliff.

- How long does it generally take?

- An hour if the people are not wounded.

- You immediately warned the firemen?

- Yes, they were warned by us today morning, they will surely participate with us.

- Menton firemen?

- Yes.

- Specialists?

- Generally. We collaborate for this kind of operations.

- .

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- 2 men, 2 clandestines were spotted.

- One of them disappears before the rescue team arrives at the top of the cliff.

- Seeing the firemen’s helmets and the French riot squad’s forage caps, the second clandestine clutched more tightly

- and is 10 meters down the Path of Death.

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- From below, a radio guides the operation.

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- And the clandestine who is joined by a French riot squad agent in a rope party will then go down on his rescuer’s back all along the cliff, with some retrospective emotions maybe.

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- In 10 years, the Path of Death killed about 50 clandestines.

- So, you could wonder, just like us, why not block up this path?

- We would only need putting some bare wire rolls a few meters before the cliff.

- We have been thinking about if for 15 years.

- Let’s hope that not many other victims will be needed to block up once and for all this lethal road.