French immigration rules under review as far-right uses murder as weapon | Migration news

“If we have to change the rules, then let’s change them,” says conservative Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau.

France's interior minister has signaled that he will push for stricter immigration policies as the far right seeks to use a gruesome murder to put pressure on the government.

Referring to the arrest of a Moroccan man for the murder of a 19-year-old student, Bruno Retailleau said on Wednesday that this “heinous crime” requires not just rhetoric but action, as far-right parties have called for in their comments on the case.

“It is up to us as politicians not to accept the inevitable and to expand our legal arsenal to protect the French,” said Retailleau. “If we have to change the rules, let's change them.”

The tough rhetoric on immigration is nothing new from Retailleau, a member of the conservative Republican Party who has previously advocated for stricter immigration rules and faster deportations.

The proposal is in line with demands from the far-right Rassemblement National (RN), which has threatened to bring down France's fragile governing coalition if its immigration concerns are not addressed.

“It is time for this government to act: our compatriots are angry and will not be satisfied with words,” said RN leader Jordan Bardella about the murder of the student, who was identified only by her first name, Philippine.

Green MP Sandrine Rousseau spoke out against the anti-immigrant rhetoric and warned that the extreme right was using the murder case to “spread their racist hatred”.

Botched deportation

The unnamed suspect was identified as a 22-year-old Moroccan citizen.

According to the AFP news agency, he was arrested on Tuesday in the Swiss canton of Geneva.

According to prosecutors, the suspect was convicted in 2021 for a rape he committed in 2019 when he was a minor.

The suspect was due to be deported from France after serving a prison sentence for the crime, Le Monde newspaper reported.

On 20 June, he was taken to an internment camp for migrants without residence papers until his deportation.

However, a judge released him on September 3 on the grounds that there had been administrative delays in the deportation process, but he was bound by the condition that he report regularly to the police.

Three days later, the papers for his deportation were ready, but the man had disappeared, it was said.

In France, deportation orders are issued regularly, but only about seven percent of them are enforced. In the European Union as a whole, the figure is 30 percent.