In addition to commercial flights, border police sometimes use a jet to carry out forced removals. “Cash Investigation” investigated the cost of these operations and the profile of the foreigners returned.
To return illegal foreigners, the French authorities most often reserve places on commercial lines by plane, train or boat. Returns by commercial flight represent 80% of forced removals. But the border police (PAF) can also charter a much smaller plane, a Beechcraft, to deport certain migrants. In 2023, France carried out a total of 11,722 forced removals.
The “Cash Investigation” team investigated these rather discreet referrals aboard this jet rented by the PAF. The journalists obtained the registration of the Beechcraft and followed all its journeys, thanks to an application which allows the movements of planes to be traced. They were able to film one of his interventions in Orléans.
When the jet lands on the airport tarmac, only police officers are on board. Migrants awaiting departure will soon leave the terminal under good escort. And there, we witness an operation… “to conceal the operation”: instead of hiding them in their van to take them to the jet, the police make them walk… behind the vehicle. To hide the view of “Cash” journalists?
The jet was specially chartered, with ten police officers on board to send back five migrants. But to which country are we taking them back? The plane is heading to Vienna, Austria. Why then send illegal foreigners back to our European neighbors? “Cash Investigation” interviewed a police officer, an active member of the national escort, support and intervention unit, who is responsible for returning migrants. “It could be 'Dublin readmissions'…”, he explains.
“Dublin readmissions”? The “Dublin Regulation”, which concerns asylum seekers, was signed in Dublin in 2003 by the member states of the European Union. When a migrant enters an EU country, their asylum application must be processed by the country in which they arrived. If, in the meantime, the migrant goes to another country, it has the possibility of sending him back to the country where the asylum application was submitted. It is an opportunity, for the country sending him back, to increase its number of forced removals.
The police officer interviewed by “Cash” continues: “You know, we only talk to you about numbers. We have to show that we are performing well at European level. We have to bring back numbers, we have to make expulsions !” In France, the number of “dublinés” is far from being anecdotal. In 2023, 2,739 asylum seekers were returned from French territory as part of a Dublin procedure, or 23% of forced removals.
Jet, flight crew, police… how much do these operations cost France? The State pays the Chalair airline a little more than 2 million euros per year for the permanent provision of the jet and its technical maintenance. Journalist Marie Maurice calculated that this corresponded, in 2023, to 10,700 euros per flight day completed. To which are added fuel, the salary of the pilots and that of the escorts, the number of which depends on the number of migrants sent away…
Extract from “Who benefits from immigration?”, a document by Marie Maurice to be seen in “Cash Investigation” on November 14, 2024.
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