Meanwhile, 300,000 illegal immigrants live in just one rundown Paris suburb
UP to one fifth of the population of an area of suburban Paris are illegal immigrants, according to an official report.
The number of illegals in Seine-SaintDenis may have risen to more than 300,000, putting a strain on public services, the French parliamentary report says.
Politicians have warned that surging numbers will help turn the suburb into ‘a huge ethnic ghetto’ within two decades.
While a large number want eventually to claim asylum in France, many are stopping over before trying to get to Britain.
An estimated 550 migrants arrive in the French capital each week, mostly having crossed the border from Italy where there are no systematic border checks because of the border-free Schengen travel area.
Many make straight for Seine-Saint-Denis, north-east of the French capital, because of its closeness to transport links. It is only only a few hours’ drive or train ride from the Normandy coast, which as the Daily Mail revealed last month, is the new route being used by migrants to try to get to Britain. They have been trying to jump onto lorries in Ouistreham, close to one of the main landing areas of the D-Day.
Seine-Saint-Denis is also a few hours from the Channel ports of Calais and Dunkirk, the traditional spots favoured by migrants trying to get to the UK.
Paris has been repeatedly plagued by illegal migrant camps turning tourist hotspots and picturesque stretches of canal into slums lined with tents following the destruction of the ‘Jungle’ migrant camp in Calais in 2016. The clearances mean many migrants, largely from Eritrea, Sudan and Afghanistan, being pushed back to areas such as Seine-Saint-Denis. Illegal migrant camps are also regularly razed in Seine-Saint-Denis, where charities say hundreds of migrant children are also sleeping rough.
Between 8 and 20 per cent of its 1.5million population are not registered with the authorities, and many turn to crime or the black economy to earn money.
This translates into between 120,000 and more than 300,000 undocumented residents, which has created community tensions. These frequently explode into riots on the numerous housing estates in the ‘department’, the French equivalent of a county.
Paris senator Philippe Dallier said ‘the challenge’ is to prevent Seine-Saint-Denis becoming a ‘huge ethnic ghetto of two million inhabitants’ within 20 years.