A volunteer-run shelter in Briançon which has provided refuge and food for migrants travelling into France via Italy over high mountain passes is facing closure at the end of this month as a newly-elected Republican mayor, Arnaud Murgia, has declined to renew the building's occupancy agreement. The project was launched in 2017 and has assisted over 11,000 migrants who have crossed the Mediterranean Sea and mountain passes en route from African nations and from as far as Afghanistan. A petition against the closure has attracted nearly 37,000 signatures, and Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) have expressed their concerns as the winter season approaches amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
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