2000 French Nationals Remain Stranded In Algeria

A parliamentary report to the National Assembly said that 2000 French nationals are still stranded in Algeria after the suspension of international airlines due to the Coronavirus spread, and asked how Paris could not evacuate these citizens, while 20,000 French nationals were deported from Morocco on 140 flights.

According to a report dated March 25, 2019, issued by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly (copy available to Echorouk), the authorities have evacuated 20.000 French nationals from Morocco due to the Coronavirus spread, but the situation is different in Algeria, where 2000 French citizens are still stranded there, and this is according to the French MP M’jid El Guerrab, representative of the French community in North Africa.

“Why did we manage to organize 140 flights between Morocco and France, but in return for one flight a day since a week ago with Algeria?”, M’jid El Guerrab
asked.

Another MP, Michel Herbillon, said, “I called the French consul in Algeria, without getting an answer. Is it reasonable that this number of French people remain stranded in Algeria without being able to evacuate them, as we did with the French who were stranded in Morocco?”.

Eric Chevallier, head of the Crisis Cell at the French Foreign Ministry for Coronavirus, responded that the situation in Algeria differs from that in Morocco concerning the first stage of evacuating travellers in the context of tourism.

Chevallier indicated that there were only some hundreds of French tourists in Algeria, compared to 20.000 in Morocco.

“Unfortunately, Air Algérie suspended flights, and for this, we worked with Air France to keep flights towards the capital Algiers and Oran. Special flights will be scheduled for the French who are still present in Algeria”.