Moroccan Unaccompanied Minors Fuel Crime Surge in Montpellier, Authorities Struggle

After analyzing the phenomenon of delinquency that has concerned the law enforcement agencies for three years, the Montpellier public prosecutor and his services indicated that "we cannot speak of unaccompanied minors as a generality. We have a subject with a small minority, about fifty unaccompanied minors who are not always the same, it is a maximum of 10% of the unaccompanied minors taken care of by the Department, and very often these are minors who are not registered in the care structures. They want to benefit from the advantages of this system like accommodation in hotels in the city center but are not applicants for other care," reports Le Midi Libre.

For his part, Mayor Michaël Delafosse announced a partnership between the prosecutor, the Department and the city, in order to place unaccompanied minors under the responsibility of the Department in hotels, as well as the creation of places dedicated to their accommodation with an appropriate framework. Moreover, an investigation group has been created in the border police in order to detect "false minors," the prosecutor Fabrice Belargent hammered.

But, contrary to these statements, the representative of the public prosecutor’s office indicated that the district of the prison of Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone is constantly full. The same goes for the specialized establishment of Lavaur, which is on the verge of saturation. "We systematically present the minors to the package for violence on the public highway, for burglaries, for the most serious acts. A certain number are the subject of a detention order," he stressed.

Moreover, several "of these minors are under the influence of RivotrilTM," a product that is part of the composition of amphetamines manufactured in Morocco. Thus, "when they burgle pharmacies, it is for the cash register and not for the RivotrilTM in fact". That being said, "it is very complicated to implement because the minors have to adhere to it, but these minors in destitution on the public highway are not applicants for care," he regretted.