Over 7 in 10 French Want Foreign Criminals to Serve Prison Time Abroad

A survey has revealed that over seven in ten French people want foreign criminals to serve their sentences in their countries of origin after being convicted of crimes in France.

The polling showed that a total of 72 per cent of the French public would support sending foreign criminals back to their home countries to serve out their sentences after being convicted of crimes in France, a measure that Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin recently discussed.

The data was compiled by the CSA institute and was released on Wednesday and revealed that just 10 per cent of French were totally against the idea of deporting foreign criminals back to their countries to serve prison sentences, CNews reports.

A similar poll was conducted by the CSA institute last year and showed that 66 per cent of French were for the idea of sending criminals overseas, so there seems to have been a marked increase in the popularity of the proposal.

Broken down by political affiliation, supporters of right-wing parties such as Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) were far more in favour of sending foreign criminals overseas, but even the far-left France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party saw a majority of supporters backing the idea.

The poll comes after Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin gave an interview last weekend discussing a new proposal to relax the country’s deportation laws to allow foreign criminals to be deported from France more easily in the future.

“Today, a foreigner who has committed serious acts is not expellable as long as he meets certain conditions, such as arriving on the national territory before the age of 13,” Darmanin said. “We want to allow the expulsion of any foreigner found guilty of a serious act by the courts, regardless of his condition of presence on the national territory.”

The proposal has the backing of Marine Le Pen, who stated that if a new reform law came to the French parliament, she would support it.

“We will sign with both hands. We will even improve its text, in my opinion, to allow it to be more effective, more efficient,” she said.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.