During a speech to the French parliament, President Emmanuel Macron admitted that around half of the delinquency in Paris involves illegal immigrants.
President Macron spoke out on immigration, saying that he wanted to see the French parliament debate the subject and look to reforming the country’s immigration system, the broadcaster BFMTV reports.
Macron also admitted that around have of the delinquency in Paris involved illegal immigrants, saying: “Yes, when we look at delinquency in Paris, we can see that half of the delinquency comes from foreigners in an irregular situation” — but he did not want to link immigration itself to crime and insecurity, regardless.
“I will never make an existential link between immigration and insecurity,” he vowed.
Macron’s statements come nearly two weeks after a 12-year-old named Lola was found dead in a suitcase in the courtyard of the building where her family lived, with an illegal immigrant from Algerian later being arrested for raping and murdering the girl.
Reports later revealed that the alleged murder had already been given a deportation order and should have been out of the country weeks prior to the alleged killing.
French media revealed that over 90 per cent of deportation orders in France are not enforced, despite President Marcon promising to carry out a hundred per cent of all deportation orders.
A poll released last week revealed that a majority of the French public want to see all illegal immigrants in France placed into deportation centres, not left at large in the country.
France has enough space for just under 2,000 migrants in the centres currently operating. but some have estimated the number of illegal immigrants in the country could be as high as 700,000.
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