The Moroccan migrant rapist suspected of killing a 19-year-old French girl in an affluent neighbourhood of Paris in September will finally be extradited back to France after fleeing to Switzerland.
Taha O., a 22-year-old migrant accused of murdering a 19-year-old student at the Paris-Dauphine University, named only in the press as Philippine, has agreed to return to France from Switzerland to face justice.
“My client has decided to accept extradition in order to be brought before the French judges and to speak on the case… The Swiss authorities will organise the transfer of the detainee from Switzerland to France,” said Florence Yersin, the lawyer representing the Moroccan national, according to Le Figaro.
The gruesome murder of a promising young woman, whose body was found partially buried in the Bois de Boulogne park in western Paris on September 21, sent shockwaves throughout the country and put pressure on the government to institute stricter migration controls.
This was amplified by the fact that the Moroccan migrant suspect had been convicted of rape in 2021 and yet was not deported from the country after being released from prison in June. After being set free, Taha was given an OQTF (Obligation to leave French territory) deportation order, which also would have banned him from the country for 10 years.
However, as is often the case, he was not removed from the country before the killing of Philippine. According to the president of France’s Court of Audit, Pierre Moscovici, just 12 per cent of deportation orders actually result in migrant removals per year.
The sorry state of government deportation efforts, in conjunction with high-profile murders and terror attacks often committed at the hands of migrants, has pushed the recently installed neo-liberal government to press for immigration reforms.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who oversees the nation’s immigration system, will likely be charged with proposing the reforms.
Following the killing of the young woman in Paris last month, Retailleau pronounced: “It is up to us, public officials, to refuse to accept this inevitability and to develop our legal arsenal to protect the French. Because it is their first right, and therefore our first duty. If the rules need to be changed, let’s change them.”
Last week, the interior minister said that he had appointed an envoy to begin negotiations with third-party counties to establish migrant detention centres similar to the Albanian model crafted by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Retailleau said that talks have already started with countries such as Egypt, Iraq, and Kazakhstan.
The top immigration officer went on to suggest that he would seek to re-establish a criminal offence for illegally remaining in the country and “right of the soil” birthright citizenship, arguing that “you cannot become French without realising it”. Finally, the Minister of the Interior suggested extending the detention of “dangerous” illegal migrants, such as terrorists, from 90 to 210 days.
Retailleau said that he is confident that his department will be able to significantly increase deportations, though he has so far refused to commit to a target rate for removals.