France set to follow Germany and expel illegal migrants from country

France is set to follow Germany and expel illegal migrants who have ‘broken in’ to the country, its new interior minister said as he called for a coalition of like-minded EU countries to demand tighter immigration rules. Bruno Retailleau’s (pictured) calls for a harsher line on asylum claims, violence against police, prison sentences, radical Islam and drug trafficking underline the sway of Marine Le Pen’s right National Rally (RN) party on the newly installed government.

Retailleau, 63, a veteran of the mainstream conservative Republicans (LR) party and a longtime sceptic of immigration, told the Le Figaro daily that he would unveil new measures within weeks, and that France ‘must not refrain from strengthening our legislative arsenal’. ‘My objective is to put a stop to illegal entries and to increase exits, particularly for illegal immigrants, because one should not stay in France when one has broken in,’ he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Echoing comments by RN officials, Retailleau told CNews on Tuesday that France and other like-minded European nations should join forces to compel the European Union to toughen its immigration laws. Retailleau’s comments come after the deputy chairman for the German federal police union said that tighter Border controls in Germany were succeeding in fighting the ‘migration crime crisis’.

Manuel Ostermann told Germany’s Focus magazine: ‘We are witnessing the efficiency of the federal police and, above all, we are once again seeing confirmation of the necessity of border controls.’ He added: ‘It has long been statistically substantiated and more and more people in Germany are experiencing it every day: the migration crisis is increasingly becoming a crime crisis and is leading parts of our infrastructure close to collapse.’

He said the migration crisis had now grown into a crime crisis, putting major strains on the country’s infrastructure and leading to widespread public safety concerns.

French minister Retailleau said neighbouring Germany’s decision to impose temporary border checks, suspending decades of largely free movement within the EU’s Schengen travel zone, underscored how European views on immigration were shifting rightward.

‘I think we must forge an alliance with the major European countries that want to toughen up, and have already toughened up, their legislative arsenal to change European rules.’

Retailleau added that some of the EU’s immigration laws had become ‘totally obsolete (and) no longer correspond to the threats of the moment’. Speaking to TF1 television, Retailleau said he would summon prefects – regional representatives of the interior ministry – from the 10 regions with the highest immigration numbers to tell them ‘to expel more, to regularise less’.

He also pledged to speak with North African nations about stopping more undocumented migrants from heading to France. Asked by CNews if he relied on the political goodwill of the RN, Retailleau said: ‘I depend on the goodwill of the French.’

But he acknowledged that voters had sent a clear message in the first round of this summer’s legislative election, in which the RN came first with around a third of votes. A leftist alliance ultimately won the most votes in the second round, thanks to a legislative pact to keep the far right out of power. ‘The French, too, have given us their roadmap. We must listen to the message they gave us, they want more security and less immigration. I will apply this roadmap.’

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