Migrants carrying their children walk through water to board a smuggler’s boat attempting to cross the English Channel from northern France on June 16, 2025 (AFP).

Whether it concerns so-called “training centers” paid to prepare asylum seekers before interviews with the French office, or advice given by quasi-legal actors to obtain or renew residence permits, fraudulent practices targeting lost foreigners, mainly from the Maghreb and other countries, flourish in France amid the maze of administrative procedures for regularizing their status, without oversight, according to AFP on Monday.

In the summer heat, a long queue of people from Algeria, Tunisia, Cameroon, and El Salvador formed in front of the “Solidarity Bus” provided by the Paris Bar Association in the working-class 18th district. Inside, four lawyers offered free consultations to those waiting.

Ahmed, a Tunisian with limited French, said he came hoping to get information to regularize his status instead of remaining an illegal worker in the black market. He held his rough hands with pay slips as proof of years of work in construction.

Following advice from an association, the fifty-year-old man sought consultation after being defrauded by someone who claimed to be a “legal expert” and extorted 700 euros without clarifying if he was eligible for status regularization, which did not seem possible in his case.

Ahmed said, “Each time I saw him, he asked me to bring a new document and took 90 euros.” The worker did not dare object for fear of deportation.

Such cases are no longer rare, according to the Antanak association, which helps those struggling with technology and applications. Its founder, Isabelle Carrier, says more people come due to “complex procedures,” as well as mistakes made by “unscrupulous or inexperienced lawyers unfamiliar with immigration law,” or due to service offices using “dishonest” methods exploiting migrants’ suffering.

Mysterious Card

The shift from paper submissions to digital procedures, the sharp rise in appeals over the past five years, and stricter regularization criteria have created fertile ground for fraud.

A year ago, advertisements appeared in subway trains, on street billboards, and social media promoting an office offering help to undocumented migrants to complete “French procedures,” and many soon fell victim to such ads.

Sandra Moran, a union official in northern Paris suburbs, said, “Getting an appointment with the competent administration through the simplified procedure is free, but with this entity, it costs hundreds of euros,” citing a man who paid 2,000 euros for it.

On TikTok, another entity followed by over 23,000 people offers advice from “Coach Hervé,” who promises to issue a mysterious card allowing undocumented migrants “to move freely without fear of deportation.”

Resignation to Fate

Those who call this entity by phone are immediately offered a subscription costing 365 euros for “help completing procedures,” with a warning that the price will rise the next day to 495 euros to encourage immediate payment.

Even if the service requester is not eligible to regularize status through work, they are encouraged to pay the subscription to prepare an asylum file, according to a case reviewed by AFP.

Within a WhatsApp group of hundreds interested in these services, “training courses” are also offered for working as nannies or domestic helpers “even without a residence permit,” for 800 to 1,200 euros. For 1,299 euros, one can join the so-called “Asylum Academy.” The cost includes “writing and editing the personal statement” that applicants must draft to explain their situation and circumstances. This statement is a key document relied upon by state officials skilled at detecting false claims when deciding refugee status.

The discussion group of about 600 members is filled with images of bank transfer receipts, while few questions about prices are silenced with remarks like “choose what suits you… and avoid flooding the group with questions.”

Moran explains that victims, who “often feel ashamed” of falling into scammers’ traps after previous fraud during their journey, “treat it somewhat like their fate, as if they deserved what happened,” feeling very vulnerable.