The case was revealed in 2020 by Le journal de l’île de la Réunion. The Comorian Minister of Foreign Affairs was suspected of massive fraud in French social benefits, and an investigation had been opened by the prosecutor’s office in Saint-Denis de la Réunion. Still according to the Reunionese daily, the conclusions of the investigations revealed that Dhoihir Dhoulkamal and his wife benefited from universal medical coverage (CMU), active solidarity income (RSA) but also other social benefits such as family allowances, housing allowance or even the back-to-school bonus and the Christmas bonus.
The investigators were able to assess the amount of the fraud at 251,500 euros, and this since 2015, the prescription preventing to go back further in the calculations. The Reunionese daily which revealed this scam believes for its part that the fraud could have started in the early 2010s.
Having acquired French nationality in 2000, the minister allegedly concealed his salaries so that his wife, residing in Reunion, could receive social benefits. The Comorian head of diplomacy was elected deputy from 2015 after having held various responsibilities in the ruling administration of Anjouan, the island of the archipelago closest to the French department of Mayotte. He became Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Union of the Comoros in 2020.
“The quarterly declarations as well as the various requests for benefits mention an absence of activity, as well as zero income”, indicates a report, consulted by Le Monde. According to this same document, the couple would not have declared the income of two of their three children in the same way. The investigators also noted “inconsistencies in civil status and Social Security numbers”. As the newspaper also indicates, the CGSS has filed a complaint against Dhoihir Dhoulkamal. He would have gone to Reunion on several occasions to receive medical care responding to the CMU, while it is necessary in particular to justify residing at least six months and one day a year on French territory to benefit from it.
These accusations come at a crucial time when France has launched a vast operation to fight crime and illegal immigration in Mayotte, a French island in the Comoros archipelago. If the Comorian government had suspended maritime links at the start of the operation preventing the return of illegal immigrants mainly from the island of Anjouan, President Azali Assoumani finally accepted the resumption of rotations between the two islands after long negotiations. In this context, Minister Dhoihir Dhoulkamal traveled to France to meet during an official visit his counterpart Catherine Colonna as well as the Minister of the Interior and Overseas Gérald Darmanin.
In its annual report, the Court of Auditors recently recalled that the fight against social fraud in France remains largely insufficient. This is, by nature, difficult to quantify, the figures varying from a few billion euros to more than 40 billion euros according to the National Assembly or the magistrate Charles Prats.
The government announced on Monday a plan to fight against these scams, with measures such as the control of pensioners living outside Europe or the strengthening of the conditions of residence in France to benefit from social allowances.
