Nearly 4,700 foreign offenders deported in 2023, an increase of 30% compared to 2022

Nearly 4,700 foreign offenders were expelled in 2023, an increase of 30% compared to 2022, the Ministry of the Interior announced on Thursday January 4, two weeks after the painful adoption of the immigration law, which provides to facilitate removals.

In detail, 4,686 foreign offenders were deported in 2023 compared to 3,615 in 2022 and 1,800 in 2021, the ministry said. The main destination areas for expelled people are, in order, the Maghreb, sub-Saharan Africa and central Europe.

A critical report from the Court of Auditors

These figures correspond to “effective removals upon release from administrative detention centers and execution of ministerial expulsion orders”, specifies the ministry. This does not include people expelled due to their registration in the Reports File for the prevention of radicalization of a terrorist nature.

This communication comes as the Court of Auditors issues a report on the policy to combat illegal immigration. In this document, the Sages of rue Cambon formulate eleven recommendations, which concern in particular the strengthening of human resources of administrations, which it considers insufficient. The Court also denounces a “normative instability”with 133 legislative changes in a decade “according to the news”.