Paris Police Express Concern over Soaring Number of Crimes Committed by Minor Migrants

Paris police are concerned over the growing problems with allegedly underage migrant criminals, who, despite being a small population, account for a significant source of many crimes in the French capital.

Around 2,000 supposed minor migrants, many of which are debated to be underage, live on the streets of Paris and have been behind a disproportionate number of crimes in the city in recent years, including 30 per cent of burglaries, 44 per cent of pickpocketing and 32 per cent of robberies with violence in 2020.

The Paris police prefecture has expressed concerns about the rise of minor migrant criminality in the city, noting that in 2016 minor migrants represented just three per cent of burglaries and had reached 29 per cent by 2020, a tenfold increase, the newspaper Le Parisien reports.

The Directorate for the Judicial Protection of Young People (DPJJ), an agency of the Ministry of Justice responsible for juvenile justice, said that criminal minor migrants represent around ten per cent of the total number of minor migrants in France.

Criminal minor migrants are mostly associated with thefts, and usually target people with mobile phones, jewellery, bank cards and other items. They also often rob shops, such as grocers, clothing shops, and pharmacies.

Some are also said to be addicted to drugs and can become violent, carrying knives and sometimes, even firearms.

The Paris police are not the first to sound alarms over minor migrant criminality. In 2021, French Senator Henri Leroy, a former police officer, stated that most of France’s major cities were affected by underage migrant crime.

“Just look at the panorama of delinquency. There is a worrying increase which seems exponential. The number of minor migrants was 30,000 in 2015 and 60,000 in 2018, and the associated problems are increasing at the same rate,” Senator Leroy said.

“In Bordeaux, 40 per cent of delinquency is attributable to them, and the proportion was 24 per cent two years ago. The problem grows and threatens to infiltrate all sections of delinquency, trafficking, banditry… We need to stop this bleeding,” he added.

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