“Europeans lie on Algeria about illegal immigrants,” says Ould Kablia

The government raised doubts about figures reported by European countries related to Algerian illegal immigrants. Interior minister Dahou Ould Kablia said Algeria is ready to cooperate with any European state to identify the immigrants.

“A number of European countries give false and illogic figures about Algerian illegal immigrants,” Ould Kablia told Echorouk on Wednesday.

He added that there are no official statistics about Algerian illegal immigrants. “I talked about that with Belgium’s Asylum and Immigration State Secretary Maggie De Block. I told her that Algerian authorities are ready to deal with the case of its nationals living in Belgium in an illegal way.”

Algeria will treat their cases provided that European authorities confirm that their nationality. “It is simple and needs some coordination. The Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) will identify the illegal immigrants.

The minister called on the Belgian official to provide Algeria with biometric data about illegal immigrants in her country. “Once any Algerian is identified there, authorities will deal with his / her case.”

Algerian authorities are informed about hundreds or thousands Algerian illegal immigrants in Belgium. “Yet, figures given by Belgian authorities are 3 or 4 times double compared to our estimates,” he told journalists.

He added that Algeria took all necessary measures to receive any Algerian living in an illegal way in any foreign country. An Algerian-Belgian working group was set up to study immigration, visa and people’s identification-related issues.