Delinquency attributed to unaccompanied minors from the Maghreb increased sharply in Paris between 2019 and 2020. But in many cases, these suspects are in reality adults seeking to escape harsher penalties.

To fight against this phenomenon, the Paris Police Prefecture has set up a system to better ensure their identity. 

The Paris police headquarters recorded a 20% increase in delinquency attributed to unaccompanied minors in the Maghreb between 2019 and 2020. In the first quarter, the police carried out 2,360 arrests of suspects claiming to be unaccompanied minors. North African origin.

But some are in reality of age and thus seek to escape more severe penalties.

A system has thus been put in place to fight against this phenomenon.

For a year and a half, the police headquarters have sent the fingerprints of those arrested to the Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian authorities, who consult their files to ensure the identity of the accused.

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Claiming to be a minor to avoid a more severe criminal sanction 

Unaccompanied minors from the Maghreb, who represent only 6% of delinquency on public roads in the first quarter of 2021, are over-represented in certain offenses: 30% of pick-pocketing, 26% of robberies with violence or 29% of arrests for burglaries, against only 3% in the first quarter of 2017. This increase can be explained in particular by the health crisis. With fewer tourists on the streets and fewer trips by public transport, offenders have had to diversify. 

But these figures do not fully reflect reality.

Indeed, these are declarative statistics, which cover all delinquents who present themselves as unaccompanied minors from the Maghreb.

Most often, these suspects have no papers, give aliases to the police and claim to be minors in order to avoid a more severe criminal sanction and not to be subject to a deportation order. 

Compare fingerprints with country of origin files

Until then, the police services were therefore powerless to distinguish between adults and minors.

They could sometimes rely on bone examinations requested by justice, but had no infallible means to establish the identity and therefore the age of the accused.

Since the end of 2019, the Department of Proximity Security of the Paris agglomeration (DSPAP) has been experimenting with a system that allows them to compare fingerprint readings with files from countries of origin.

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"We take the fingerprints of those accused in police custody, we put them in international format and the Central Directorate of Judicial Police (DCPJ) and the Directorate of International Cooperation (DCI) send them to our security officers in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia ", explains Valérie Martineau, director of the DSPAP.

"These security officers forward them to local authorities, who compare them to their automated fingerprint file. These are files that contain the fingerprints of all nationals who have applied for an identity card, unlike the automated fingerprint file. (FAED) French which only contains the fingerprints of people who have committed offenses, ”she explains. 

1,122 requests sent to the authorities in the Maghreb and 256 returns

The device is starting to prove its worth. First tested in Paris, it was extended at the start of the year to cover the entire police headquarters, Seine-Saint-Denis, Seine et Marne and Val-de-Marne. 1,122 requests were sent to the Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian authorities, for 256 returns. In the overwhelming majority of cases (95%), they are adults.

"We have this return several weeks after custody but it does not matter," said Valérie Martineau.

"As these are individuals who are in a serial delinquency, we know that at some point we will take them back and we can oppose them the identity communicated by the authorities of the Maghreb. In the same way, if the false minor leaves in another city such as Bordeaux or Nantes, his identity will be entered in the criminal record file and all police services have access to it. "

Other prefectures interested in the device

The DSPAP estimates that this system now makes it possible to complete two to three legal proceedings per week.

Other prefectures, such as Hauts-de-France and Ille-et-Vilaine, are interested in this device. 

But this system presupposes a sine qua non: having the fingerprints of the accused. However, many in custody refuse, even if it is an offense punishable by one year in prison. MP LR Antoine Savignat, author of a parliamentary report on the security issues associated with the presence on the territory of unaccompanied minors, pleads for a more restrictive system. "There should perhaps be a scale of more severe penalties or effective penalties in the event of refusal to have his fingerprints taken," suggests the elected official. The report also pleads for strengthening cooperation with countries of origin but also countries of transit, in order to allow the identification of unaccompanied minors or those who present themselves as such.