Marine Le Pen Found Guilty Of Defamation Against Migrant Aid Group

Marine Le Pen has been found guilty of defamation against an organisation, Cimade, geared to the aid of migrants and asylum seekers, as per Euro News.

The former leader of France’s far-right party, the National Rally, accused the French organisation of sometimes being the ‘accomplice of smugglers’ involved in ‘an illegal immigration network from the Comoros,’ during an interview with BFMTV which was broadcast back at the start of 2022.

In November later that year, Le Pen resigned from the party, and she has now been found guilty of defamation.

What did Marine Le Pen say about Cimade?

“Sometimes [humanitarian organisations] are even complicit with smugglers,” she said in the interview.

“Cimade actually organises the illegal immigration network coming from the Comoros.”

Back then, Le Pen was running to be the president of France with the election taking place of April last year, but she was defeated by Emmanuel Macron.

Wind forward to now, then, and on Friday last week a French court found her guilty of defamation over her claims on Cimade, with her ordered her to pay them a suspended fine of €500. She will also have to pay €2,000 in court costs and €1 in damages.

Where this leaves Le Pen in France remains to be seen, whilst the migrant crisis still dominates the political agenda for many countries.

Most of Europe has seen an influx of migrants from the likes of Africa and the Middle East in recent years, with coast guards and humanitarian organisations often having to travel out to sea to aid stranded boats that are struggling to stay afloat.

Such is the desperation of these people to move to Europe, they cram into small dinghies to try and make crossings, but these can, and have, led to tragic disasters involving drownings.

As yet, though, a solution has not been found for the crisis by the countries of Europe.