France Sticks to EU Refugee Plan Despite Public Concern Over Crimes – MP

Paris pledges support to the EU plan for refugee relocation quotas despite the public concerns that taking more migrants may further deteriorate domestic criminogenic situation, a French center-right The Republicans opposition party lawmaker told Sputnik on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Svetlana Alexandrova — Earlier in the day, the survey conducted exclusively for Sputnik by Ifop, revealed that nearly two-thirds of French residents considered that migrants from the Middle East and Africa were a "significant" source of crime in France. Less than one-third, or 28 percent, of the respondents expressed a different viewpoint.

"However, the French authorities are more reluctant than Germany to accept any further relocation of refugees as France is facing economic, criminal and integration difficulties, Paris continues to confirm its commitment to fulfilling its refugee quota while putting itself in an awkward position," Jacques Myard said, commenting on the results of the most recent survey on the issue.

The lawmaker agreed with the French public that there was a legitimate security problem with all those migrants arriving to the country, adding that the French authorities were literally putting their necks on the line for "the so-called European solidarity."

"The French society is concerned that they [migrants] will not be able to integrate and will contribute to violence and crime," he stressed.