Two weeks after the vote on the immigration law, the Court of Auditors issued its report on the effectiveness of the fight against irregular immigration: the policy of the Ministry of the Interior is not satisfactory enough.
The verdict is harsh and clear: the Court of Auditors deplores the ineffectiveness of the migration policy given the financial resources involved. The Sages point out more particularly in a report of 140 pages published this Thursday, January 4, the fight against illegal immigration which costs 1.8 billion euros per year, but which presents insufficient results. This sum includes both “security force expenses”, expenses linked to the detention and “removal” of people in an irregular situation or legal litigation expenses.
The Ministry of the Interior, directly concerned by matters linked to immigration and alone in charge of the fight against illegal arrivals, shows difficulties in “preventing unauthorized persons from accessing the national territory (border control) ” as much as to “remove those who do not or no longer have the right to remain there (spontaneous departure, assisted voluntary return, forced removal)”, we can read in the report.
The share of illegal immigration is difficult to quantify and the Court of Auditors itself admits that the “number of illegal foreigners present in France is uncertain”. The fact remains that this only represents a minority share compared to the seven million immigrants recorded in the latest INSEE data. The number of illegal immigrants is often calculated in relation to the number of beneficiaries of state medical aid (AME) which amounted to 439,000 in June 2023, according to figures given by the President of the Court of Auditors, Pierre Moscovici. Note that not all beneficiaries of this aid are illegal immigrants and that certain illegal immigrants do not benefit from the AME.
More numerous OQTFs but little applied
The fight against illegal immigration falls short in terms of border surveillance, but this task, which relies on 126 border crossing points manned by customs, the border police and more rarely the air gendarmerie, is complicated by the strong “migratory pressure” which weighs on it recognizes the Court of Auditors. On this point, the Sages believe that the border police should be mobilized at more crossing points, instead of customs, in particular at points where “traveler traffic has increased significantly and which present significant security issues”. .
The authorities are also struggling to drive illegal immigrants out of the territory: only 12% of the 134,280 obligations to leave French territory (OQTF) issued to illegal immigrants in 2022 have been executed according to the general directorate for foreigners in France. Although few in number, these forced removals are costly: 50.3 million euros to carry out 11,406 forced removals in 2022, or 4,414 euros per person on average. The rate of OQTFs applied should be higher according to the Court of Auditors which recommends an increase in staff, particularly in the prefecture services in charge of OQTFs, especially as the number of OQTFs issued increases by 60% over these three last years.
To better identify illegal immigrants, the Court of Auditors calls for better communication between the services of the Ministry of the Interior and those of the social security services or social landlords to facilitate the execution of OQTFs. The Court also recommends “collecting and storing the identity data of foreigners intercepted when they irregularly cross internal and external borders, through the creation of information systems and an appropriate legal framework” as well as “formalizing a interministerial strategy to combat irregular immigration, and ensure its implementation by an interministerial body.