There are at least 851 illegal immigrants on France’s terror watchlist, according to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.
Interior Minister Darmanin stated on Tuesday that 231 illegal migrants were major risks to French security and needed to be deported. At least 180 of those are currently in French custody.
Of the 4,111 foreigners on the Reporting File for the Prevention of Radicalisation of a Terrorist Character (FSPRT), 851 are illegal migrants. Of those, only 428 have actually been deported from the country, L’Express reports.
France is unable to deport some of these migrants, according to Darmanin, because international conventions prevent it as their home nations, like Libya, are considered unstable.
François Héran, demographer and head of the Migrations Chair of the Collège de France, said of the figures: “While there are 300,000 irregulars in France — which is the most common estimate but probably lower than reality — the 231 flagged for radicalisation, according to Gerald Darmanin, represent a proportion of 1 in 1,300.”
“It is not insignificant, but it invalidates the idea that there is a necessary link between irregular migration and radicalisation,” he added and claimed it was harder to engage with the threat of radicalism from those born in France.
This is not the first time that immigration has been discussed in the context of radical Islamic extremism. During the height of the migrant crisis, it was reported that Islamic State had sent members amongst the wave of asylum seekers.
In 2018, a Syrian asylum seeker arrested for a terrorist plot in Hamburg later admitted in court that the terrorist group had sent him to Europe disguised as a refugee.
Mohamed A., 27, had told the German court that the terrorist group had commanded him to infiltrate the migrant wave and wait in Germany for orders. The group also allegedly gave him a forged passport and $1,500 in cash.