Algerian Foreign Ministry Official Responds to the French Interior Minister

An official source at the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was inquired about the recent statement by French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau to Le Figaro newspaper, in which he announced his intention to instruct French prefectures “not to recognise passports issued by Algerian consulates to Algerian citizens to obtain residence permits.”

The source was keen to recall, first, that granting these passports is a right for Algerian citizens and that issuing them is a duty incumbent upon the sovereign Algerian state. Therefore, recognising these passports is a duty imposed upon the French state.

The same source considered the French minister’s statement to be arbitrary, discriminatory, and an abuse of power, as it explicitly contravenes French law itself. As far as its author is concerned, this statement has a clear political dimension, is also legally unfounded, and is not based on any rule in French law itself.

In the same context, the official explained that the passports in question are issued at the request of the French prefectures themselves, as they are indispensable reference documents in applications for residence permits.

On this basis, the failure to recognise these passports, as stated by the French Interior Minister, constitutes a violation of individual rights and a further breach of France’s bilateral and international obligations.