French border police dismantle irregular migration network

Network was renting passports of migrant French citizens, sending them to African clients, helping people enter France

By Umit Donmez

PARIS (AA) – French border police at an airport dismantled an irregular migration network, local media reported Friday.

The network was helping sub-Saharan African irregular migrants enter France with authentic French passports, according to daily Ouest-France.

An investigation was launched in November 2022, and the border police at the Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle airport in Paris arrested seven Malian suspects, the daily added.

Border guards also arrested a Malian passenger carrying a French passport belonging to a French citizen in late 2022, Ouest-France said.

The passenger paid €7,000 ($7,730) for his air trip from Bamako to France with an authentic passport.

The discovery of such a case incited the border police to investigate and unveil the network.

The network was renting for a few euros the passports of migrant French citizens. Those documents were sent to their Malian, Ivorian, or Cameroonian clients contacted via social media.

Over 250 people illegally came to France with the help of this network, according to police sources quoted by Ouest-France.

Police will also identify the citizens who rent their passports and pursue them, the daily added.

*Writing by Nur Asena Erturk in Ankara

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