France’s Ministry of the Interior has announced that since 2018, French authorities have deported over 600 illegal immigrants who are believed to have been radicalised.
The 636 illegals were reported as being potentially radicalised and were on a French terror watchlist, the File of Alerts for the Prevention of Radicalisation of a Terrorist Nature (FSPRT).
Marlène Schiappa, minister delegate for citizenship, announced the statistics over the weekend on French television, stating: “Six hundred foreigners known for radicalisation have been deported.”
The new figure for deportations is an increase since Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin revealed in November 2020 that over 450 illegals registered on the FSPRT had been deported, according to Le Point.
In May, Mr Darmanin stated that there were over 1,000 illegal migrants on the FSRPT terror watchlist, saying: “To date, 1,083 illegal aliens are registered, but they are not necessarily in France since, of these, 587 have already been expelled from the country with a ban on return, including 200 last year. For the rest, they are either in prison, in a psychiatric hospital or awaiting deportation.”
Darmanin added that foreigners make up around 20 per cent of those on the terror watchlist, including around 4,000 migrants with legal residency in France.
The French interior minister had also highlighted the number of deportations of migrant criminals, saying: “In addition, 600 of the 1,200 foreigners released from prison since January have been expelled from the country under drug trafficking or ordinary crimes.”
“At the request of the President of the Republic, we consider that a foreigner who has committed a serious act no longer has a place in France.,” he added.
President Emmanuel Macron reportedly ordered his ministers in June to do more to ensure the deportation of illegal migrants, especially those involved in terrorist activity and those reportedly radicalised.
While Minister Darmanin highlighted the deportations under the Macron government earlier this year, the actual rate of deportations of illegals stands between just 13 and 15.3 per cent.