The migrant, from Guinea who first claimed to be 17 and then 19, was handed the sentence as well as given a five-year ban on entering France once his sentence has been served by a court in Montpellier.
According to a local news outlet, Midilibre, court testimony revealed that the arrest was not the first time the migrant had had a run-in with the law. The African had been lying about his identity while facing similar accusations in Spain.
Court officials were also forced to wear medical masks during the sentencing, due to fears that the migrant is a carrier of tuberculosis: a serious and very contagious disease. The atmosphere in the court room during his trial was tense.
Despite performing bone tests on his person to determine his age, to learn whether he is in fact a minor (unaccompanied minors are protected under French law), the answers remain imprecise after two years given his many assumed identities.
As stated by his lawyer, “these tests are basically created for people of European and non-African type. They may be sometimes ineffective or inaccurate,” ignoring oft-repeated claims by pro-immigration activists that there are no racial differences between people.
The sentence handed down included four months of detention and five years of inadmissibility to French territory.
In countries like France and Germany better treatment for underage asylum seekers has resulted in migrants frequently lying about their age. A migrant who was recently given a life sentence for the rape and murder of German student had claimed to be underage, although it later came to light that he was at least 30-years-old.
In Britain, a Home Office official was caught committing identity fraud on a mass scale. He had allowed hundreds of illegal immigrants to enter into the country. Four Muslim men involved in the same scam were found guilty following a trial and will now be sentenced at a hearing next week.
Shamsu Iqbal, 61, falsified records for at least 437 people, working for a gang stealing more than £6.18million, with much of the money finding its way back to Pakistan, Bangladesh and Dubai, where the criminals have strong links. One of the criminals is a qualified lawyer of Pakistani origin who worked at a number of firms in London, while another also worked at a solicitors’ practice in London, The Daily Mail reported.
Taxpayers have lost as much as £56million, Home Office statisticians calculated, based on the amount the 437 illegal immigrants could have falsely claimed in benefits over the six years of the fraud.
Exactly how many immigrants were given false identities may never be known, but it may be hundreds more. The gang were caught out when they tried to alter the details of a legal migrant from Ghana who had been jailed for robbery and was liable for deportation.
