Four Algerians were arrested for a burglary in the French city of Yvelines on Dec. 25, right as the owners of the targeted house went to celebrate Christmas with their family. However, the men, all illegal migrants, have all already been released after they claimed they were minors.
On Dec. 25, all four men are alleged to have broken through shutters, the family’s French doors, and entered the house. However, a surveillance camera inside the house detected movement, and the family quickly notified the police.
Police arrived on scene and two of the suspects were arrested after police found them hiding under a bed on the third floor. The other two were apprehended at an RER train station nearby.
Once in custody, all four men claimed they were born in 2009 and therefore were all allegedly 16. Since they were illegally in France and had no documents, the claim allowed them to walk free immediately due to their alleged age.
French news outlet Valeurs was skeptical, noting that they all appear much older in the photos, even with blurring.
According to Valuers journalist Amaury Bucco, “To get an idea of the gap between their real age and their claimed age, we showed these photos (unblurred) to the artificial intelligence software ChatGPT, asking it to provide an age range for each of them. Here is its response: for the first suspect (top right), the software gives an age range between 23 and 28 years. For the second: between 27 and 34 years. For the third, between 24 and 30 years. And for the fourth: between 19 and 24 years.”
“In other words, according to this software, they would all be adults, with no possible ambiguity, with an age range from 19 to 24 years for the youngest, and 27 to 34 years for the oldest,” he added.
He goes on to state that prosecutors have the burden of proving the age of suspects, and since none of these Algerians had papers, this was not possible.
“A convenient way to claim a younger age and benefit from more lenient justice,” wrote Bucco, who added the judge let them “walk into the wild.”
Migrants undoubtedly receive many benefits from claiming they are minors, including social benefits, educational opportunities, and restrictions on deportations, just to name a few.
However, the French left are now putting safeguards on what many have called a scheme, after bone tests across Europe have consistently shown that migrants lie about their age.
On Dec. 15, French left-wing deputies voted in favor of extending the presumption of minority for migrants on the administrative level. Among the goals of the bill, “it would include schooling upon arrival in France, even if the minority status still needs to be recognized, and the prohibition of bone tests (and dental examinations) to determine age, deemed scientifically contested, intrusive, and an attack on dignity by several elected officials.”
Notably, a Senate report dating from September 2021 showed that 90 percent of young illegal migrants declared themselves minors upon their arrival in France, whereas after they were reviewed by medical professionals, 70 percent were actually determined to be adults.
A BBC report found that an astounding 84 percent of underage migrant minors in Sweden were actually adults, while other studies showed that 73 percent were actually adults in Belgium, and at least 40 percent were actually adults in Germany.
