Surge in Crime by Unaccompanied Moroccan Minors Challenges Paris Authorities

According to the French authorities, Moroccan minors have been involved in several criminal acts of vandalism and burglary of commercial premises and company headquarters. By imposing their law within the peripheral neighborhoods of Paris, these young people are creating a climate of widespread terror.

Aged 9 to 16, the minors whose identities and origins are difficult to determine are concentrated mainly in the Parisian suburbs and are the source of most of the muggings and burglaries of shops, pharmacies or uninhabited residences.

The police services also attribute responsibility for this scourge to the absence of a deterrent and firm legal framework, knowing that the majority of the delinquents arrested manage to escape from the social protection homes where they are assigned by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Today, it is estimated that several hundred young Moroccans are living in public gardens. According to child rights associations, these minors are "victims of family violence and human trafficking networks".