In Annecy,
” Can you speak more slowly ? Because I am not Macron… ”Jomah-Khan does not miss repartee. Equipped with a notebook to jot down new words learned in French during each of his hikes in the Alps, this 23-year-old Afghan, in France for two years, will participate on July 23 in the ascent of Mont-Blanc. Thanks to the Annecy association Yambi, Grace, Qambar, Abdul, Sikou and he could therefore become, after three days of a sacred adventure, the first refugees to reach the mythical summit of 4,810 m. For the past year, in parallel with a doctorate in migration studies, Clélia Compas (29) has been carrying out this project aimed at “forging social links” between refugees or asylum seekers, and the local population, through hikes. in the mountains.
“The idea came to me in 2017, with the media coverage of all these people who died crossing the Alps from Italy, and the arrests of people suspected of being smugglers,” recalls the young woman. Many migrants suddenly arrived in Annecy, where emergency aid was spontaneously organized. We had to show them the calming side of our Alps, given the horrible experiences they had in the mountains. “
“All alone in my home, in a dark room smelling bad”
This project materialized in July 2020, when Clélia returned from Thailand, surrounded by the co-president of Yambi Vincent Darré, but also by prestigious ambassadors with the world champions of freeride
Marion Haerty and Léo Slemett, and the first Frenchwoman to have climbed Everest, Christine Janin, godmother of the association. Between cross-country skiing, alpine skiing, soon paragliding, and therefore above all hiking, around thirty young migrants living in homes in Annecy are changing their minds with Yambi’s sports initiatives.
“I was depressed not to have the right to stay in Sweden, where I had lived for three years,” said young Afghan Jomah-Khan. When I arrived in Annecy in 2019, I was all alone in my home, in a dark, smelly room. Then from my first outing in the mountains, I felt free and happy. After having fled his native country at the age of 17, crossing Pakistan, Iran and Turkey on foot, he has now been showing a big smile since May 21, since he obtained his refugee status for four years.
“I like being able to forget everything when I walk”
He finally discovers hope, between the Mont-Blanc project and the prospect of being able to work, obtain his driving license and benefit from housing. If the wait for such formalization still weighs on his adventure partner Sikou, this 23-year-old Malian asylum seeker displays the same well-being as the crazy challenge to the roof of Europe approaches.
“I love this connection to nature and the fact that I can forget everything when I walk,” he says. It’s so much better than staying at home and thinking about all the issues. The mountain has become our best friend. »During the five hours of hiking shared with him, on June 17, from the shores of Lake Annecy to Mont Veyrier and Mont Baron, more than 500 m D + on the clock, Sikou did not fail to stay regularly, chanting gleefully “Are you tired?” “.
13,500 euros saved by Yambi thanks to the solidarity of guides
“It has become very easy for us to climb here”, smiles Jomah-Khan, also ready to step up a gear in the coming weeks, with crampons on the feet and roped training at the Aiguille du Tour (3,540 m). and on the Cosmiques ridge, at the start of the Aiguille du Midi (3,842 m), in particular to acclimatize to the altitude. Aspiring mountain guide around Chamonix, Pierre-Idris Mehdi will supervise the group of five refugees and members of Yambi. Like the ten other guides mobilized on the project, he wanted to work on a voluntary basis, which allows the association to save 13,500 euros for training requiring supervision.
“It is certainly a shortfall for me, especially in the context of Covid-19, but this project brings me such richness on a human level”, he insists. An observation shared by Clélia Compas, co-president and also a volunteer with Yambi: “It is never me who discusses their past. I want that in these days, we are turned towards the present and the future, that we exchange jokes like all the gangs of young people do. We spend so much time together that we sometimes tend to forget that these are fighters who have suffered very significant trauma ”.
“A second marathon” to find work and accommodation
Considered as “a big sister” for each of these refugees, Clélia Compas will take advantage of this project to experience her first ascent of Mont-Blanc, just like her snowboarder friend Marion Haerty. The co-president of Yambi is already looking beyond these three unforgettable days in the high mountains.
Our initial idea was to give them fun and a good time. But once at the top of Mont-Blanc, we will only have done half of the way and we will have to go back down. It’s like when these young people obtain the right to stay in France via refugee status: a second marathon begins in order to find work and accommodation. We want to help them to live this descent as well as possible. “
Abdul will thus be paid by the Annecy association for his photographic work throughout the project, and Jomah-Khan could soon obtain a logistics CDD thanks to the spirit of solidarity triggered by Yambi all around Annecy. All of them will first share “symbolically mixed ropes”, between refugees, local population and guides.
The ascent of Mont-Blanc, “a game” for the refugees?
Pierre-Idris Mehdi has little doubt about the success of this special adventure: “These young people have nevertheless crossed the whole world. We’ve been through an icefall together before and I didn’t feel them impressed at all. Considering their determination and their mentality, I can hardly imagine them giving up. With everything they’ve been through, they even told me that this ascent of Mont-Blanc was a game for them ”.
After having approached, in a touching way, his exile from Mali, “by running in the Moroccan mountains to escape the police”, Sikou does not hide his haste to attack this “game” on July 23: “It will be hard but I’m sure we’ll get to the top. We have all evolved so much, we walk much faster than a year ago. I would be so proud. “