Suspect broke away from surveillance control in Paris, says interior minister.
PARIS (AA) – An Afghan national who had been evacuated from Kabul to Paris despite alleged links to the Taliban has been placed under custody, French authorities confirmed on Tuesday.
Underlining that there is “no loophole” in security checks for incoming evacuees, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told FranceInfo TV network that the individual broke away from surveillance control in Paris and “left the monitoring place for a few minutes” before being taken under custody.
He was among a group of five Afghan nationals that were being monitored, placed under quarantine, and geolocated in Paris before he was taken under police custody when he broke quarantine by leaving the location in Saint Seine-Denis where he was placed for a short time.
The men were evacuated from Afghanistan’s capital Kabul on Aug. 18. During the security interviews conducted at the Abu Dhabi airport, which is being used as a base for airlift operations and evacuations, the Directorate General of Internal Surveillance (DGSI) suspected one of them young man of having ties with the Afghan Taliban.
He was placed under the “individual measure of administrative control and surveillance” or the MICAS provision of the anti-terrorism laws upon his arrival in Paris. “There was no fault, our vigilance is total. All security checks are carried out before their arrival in France,” he said.
The same Afghan man helped the French Embassy in Kabul “a lot” with the evacuation operation, both Darmanin and government spokesman Gabriel Attal corroborated.
The interior minister also stressed the continuous need to maintain “vigilance.” He pointed out that of the 1,000 Afghan nationals repatriated, there was “only one problematic case.”
“Our priority today is to welcome on national soil Afghans who have helped France, it is the honor of our country. Should we leave these people at Kabul airport in danger of death from the Taliban?” he said.
Julien Odoul, a spokesman for the far-right National Rally party, told FranceInfo in an interview that the incident of the Afghan men under surveillance confirms “a major risk for the safety of the French.” The party has repeatedly said that terrorists are likely to take advantage of the migration flow to infiltrate France and attack the country.
Odoul also claimed that Afghan people were incompatible with French values, lifestyle, and republican principles.