PARIS (Reuters) - France's government welcomed new data showing that deportations of migrants increased by more than a quarter last year, as it tries to curb immigration to contain a surge in far-right support.

The Interior Ministry released preliminary figures showing about 22,000 migrants living illegally in France were deported in 2024, an increase of nearly 27% on 2023.

Nearly 13,000 people living illegally in France were forcibly removed from the country, about 5,000 were given assistance to leave the country and about 4,000 spontaneously left, according to the ministry.

Conservative Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has sought to crack down on migration and drug crime in an effort to win back voters from Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN).

Gerald Darmanin, France's justice minister and former interior minister, applauded the numbers, posting on X: "I am delighted with these results obtained thanks to the firm policy we pursued during the first nine months of last year, continued by Bruno Retailleau."

Le Pen, however, focused on a 1.8% increase in the number of residency permits issued in 2024 to 336,710, revealed in the same data release.

She described the figure as "a new record". Three-quarters of those issued new residency permits were students or moving to France for family or humanitarian reasons, according to the interior ministry.

"We must now take action and put in place the necessary measures to retake control of our migration policy," Le Pen said in a post on X.

Last week, Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said many in France felt "submerged" by immigration, in comments that were applauded by the far right but slammed by his leftist rivals, almost derailing budget talks.

(Reporting by Makini Brice; additional reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Ros Russell)