The 1’30” film features, like a mirror, a European couple and their two children, living in apparent safety in their family cocoon. Then ut the family’s destiny takes a dramatic turn. A fire breaks out in a bedroom, forcing them to leave home. But they cannot escape as a wall is stopping them. They’re trapped and condemned to die. The wall symbolizes Europe’s borders, on which the hopes of the men and women who have left everything behind for a different life are dashed.

The film ends with the sentence:

WHEN BORDERS BECOME WALLS, LET’S PROTECT PEOPLE, NOT BORDERS.

C.N.R.

The campaign aims to call out and shake up public opinion and politicians by asking a simple question: What if it were us?

The idea is to make people remember the drama that is played out every day on the borders and inside Europe.

Refugees and migrants have been front-page news across all media for months. But behind the knee-jerk phrase “migrant crisis” lies a terrible crisis of European hospitality. After the ordeal of their journey, men, women and children leaving their country in an emergency, fleeing poverty, terror or war, see their hopes dashed on the gates of fortress Europe. The European Union, which has spent €13 billion since 2000 to combat so-called migrant flows, does not grant them the dignified welcome to which they are entitled, infringing international agreements and the Human Rights Charter.

In response to the distress of these exiled people, many collectives and NGOs have been created across France to give them access to basic rights. In 2017, this momentum gave rise to Collective for a refuge nation, which brings together a large number of humanitarian NGOs, individuals and collectives. CNR denounces how people exiled to France are unwelcomed.