Several burglaries have affected businesses and homes in the affluent town of Maisons-Laffitte, just outside Paris, in recent weeks, with the crime wave prompting the mayor of the town to point to France’s worsening immigration crisis.
“Our borders are sieves. It is a serious problem which is becoming a national problem, the consequences of which Maisons-Laffitte is suffering. Insecurity is growing, and the government is not taking the measures it should be taking out of naivety, laxity, and demagogy,” said Jacques Myard, the mayor of Maisons-Laffitte.
The mayor pointed to some of those individuals who have already been arrested.
“What is worrying is that it is sometimes the work of people in an irregular situation who have not been deported, or worse, people who get kicked out and come back,” he said.
The mayor also “noted an upsurge in assaults and burglaries” in his town.
According to police sources, in recent months, several unaccompanied foreign minors in France and adult illegal migrants have been convicted of burglaries committed in Maisons-Laffitte, reports Actu.fr.
30 percent jump in robberies
A police source at the local Maisons-Laffitte police station confirmed that crime rates are rising, pointing to an “increase in burglaries,” which the source said was around 30 percent more compared to last year during the same period.
“But the rise is from a small number so that makes a little more than 10 more,” said the police officer. Maisons-Laffitte has a population of 23,371 and features a number of famous chateaus.
However, he said he observes that this trend does not only concern Maisons-Laffitte but the whole district, which also includes Sartrouville, Houilles, Carrières-sur-Seine, and Mesnil-le-Roi, and even the entire department:
A number of businesses have also been targeted, including a bakery.
“We have cameras, there are municipal police cameras. The problem is that we cannot do more and then if we do more, then we can no longer survive,” says Franck Santelli, owner of the CBD Shop on Rue de Paris.
Urban violence heads to the countryside
France has seen an enormous increase in crime over the last two decades, including a 91 percent jump in murders since 2000. Much of this crime has risen in tandem with the country’s growing immigration population.
French President Emmanuel Macron has put forward a plan to move France’s troubled migrant population out to the French countryside, which remains a stronghold of conservative sentiment.
French President Emmanuel Macron is pushing for “better distribution” of foreign nationals across France, particularly in “rural areas, which are themselves losing their population,” and where “we will have to close classes, probably schools and colleges.” The French leader claims these migrants will be better received in more rural areas.
As Remix News previously reported, pushing France’s troubled migrants into rural areas may bring electoral benefits to Macron:
Macron may have a strong political objective for transferring more migrants to rural France. His base of support, along with other left-wing politicians, is substantially higher in urban areas, with the left lacking support in less densely populated regions. Importing a mass amount of non-European peoples into what were traditionally towns and rural areas — many of which have featured homogenous European populations for thousands of years — may also boost Macron and the left’s electoral prospects in the future. In the last election, for instance, a staggering 85 percent of Muslims voted for Macron in his race against National Rally’s Marine Le Pen. If more Muslims can be brought into France and absorbed into rural areas, the calculus is clear: a secure and perhaps permanent majority for the French left.
At the same time, France’s Cohen family is pushing forward with a controversial “Noah’s Ark” project to send migrants to various rural French towns despite fierce opposition from locals.