French Foreign Affairs Ministry Proposes Granting Visas In Exchange For Deporting Illegal Immigrants

The French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs announced on ongoing efforts with Algeria and 6 other countries, namely Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast and Guinea, to adopt the principle of visas in exchange for deporting illegal immigrants of these countries from the French territory, which may lead to a reduction in visas that are granted to these countries if they do not show sufficient cooperation to deport their illegal immigrants from France and re-admit them to their countries of origin.

A response from the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs on accountability of the Senate by Senator Roger Karoutchi, dated August 13, 2020, which copy was reviewed by Echorouk, said that there are negotiations with the seven countries most concerned with the procedures for the deportation of their citizens, who are illegally present on French soil, and the possibility of adopting a reduction in the number of visas that are granted to these seven countries, namely Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast and Guinea, it is found that they do not cooperate sufficiently concerning accepting the return of their citizens from France.

According to the response of the French Foreign Ministry, resorting to these measures has become possible even at the European level as well, after the amendment of the law on granting visas for the Schengen space in February 2019.

The response of the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs indicated that the amendment to the law of granting Schengen visas includes financial aid and in the commercial field also for countries that are most cooperative in the field of readmission of their nationals who are living illegally in France and Europe in general.

The amendment also includes the use of the European Maritime Border Control Agency, known as “Frontex”, to facilitate the return and reintegration of illegal immigrants in their countries.

The response of the French Foreign Ministry revealed that efforts to deport foreign illegal immigrants have focused since 2017 on 7 countries that have priority given the number of their nationals in an illegal situation on French soil, namely Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast and Guinea, indicating that the negotiations regarding the issuance of consular licenses for the return of the illegal immigrants improved with Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia, and negotiations are still ongoing with Algeria, Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Through this document, it appears that there is a disagreement between Algeria and France regarding the approach of the return of Algerian illegal immigrants from France, as evidenced by the fact that the discussions started since 2017, but they are still ongoing until now.

In 2018, French parliamentary reports accused Algeria of being one of the countries with little cooperation in the field of handing over deportation licenses to its citizens, similar to the French Senate presented on November 23, 2017, in which it was stated that the Algerian consulates in France (18) refuse to hand over more than half the requests for the deportation of its citizens submitted to them by the French authorities, known as the “laissez-passer consulates”.

At the time, the report said that Algeria granted in 2016, for example, only about 48% of the consular deportation licenses to its citizens, which makes Algeria uncooperative by about 52%, which means that Algeria indirectly refuses to deport 52% of its nationals who live illegally on the French territory.