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11 Sep, 2018 15:50

Video of Macron puzzled by ‘illegal’ migrants who say they lived in France for 8 years (VIDEO)

Video of Macron puzzled by ‘illegal’ migrants who say they lived in France for 8 years (VIDEO)

French Twitter users have ripped Macron apart after a video featuring his conversation with ‘illegal’ migrants, who have lived in France without documents for 8 years, went viral. Many thought the whole conversation was a farce.

The exchange between the head of state and a group of Algerians in Marseille, a popular destination for migrants from North Africa, was captured on video and posted on Twitter.

“Mr. Macron, we are undocumented! We like you so much here!” one man said to Macron who replies that they should “regularize” their status. Then the president wonders how long they were living in the country without documents. The answer seemed to be quite a shock. The group of Algerians said that they arrived in France eight years ago for holidays.

“Are you kidding me, you've been undocumented for 8 years?” Macron asked them with a confused smile. The ‘illegal’ migrants then started saying something incomprehensible. The video renewed the wave of criticism about the president’s handling of the migrant crisis.

“Attention, this is not a parody that is the President of our Republic!” one person wrote on Twitter, while others claimed that Macron “embarrasses” them and isn’t trustworthy.

“When the most ‘powerful’ man in France looks the other way when there is an obvious breach of law, he makes fools of the whole country,” another user said.

Some accused the centrist politician of “francophobia” dubbing him “the president of the undocumented”migrants. “Macron feeds cheaters, traitors, illegal migrants... Who else?”

The Twitterati questioned why Macron couldn’t tell the ‘illegals’ to go back to Algeria or report them to police but instead just said “you need to regularize.”“It's been eight years that [these undocumented migrants] have violated the laws of the country by living illegally, and it seems to amuse Macron,” another added.

Others pointed out that Macron was friendlier to the migrants than to the schoolboy who called him “Manu.” The story of Macron dressing down the teenager and telling him to choose between “Mr President” and “sir” went viral this summer. Macron “endorses the undocumented and gives lessons of ‘politeness’ to a kid!” said one person.

There were some who defended the French president saying that the migrant crisis started long before he came to power. “I don’t blame Macron specifically because this problem didn’t appear yesterday,” one man wrote. 

Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants currently live in France. Many of them work in building sites, restaurants and factories using fake or borrowed documents.  According to a report in Le Figaro in July, there are between 150,000 and 400,000 illegals in the Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis.

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