Macron Decided To Reduce The French Visa Quota For Algerians In 2019

President Emmanuel Macron made a firm and strong decision to reduce Algeria’s quota of the French (Schengen) visa in 2019, to curb the phenomenon of illegal immigration, French Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, said.

Darmanin added during his visit to the three Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) that he explained to Algerian officials that Paris will apply the visa principle in exchange for obtaining consular licenses to deport illegal immigrants and extremists to their countries.

French Interior Minister’s statements include clear trade-offs for the Maghreb countries, and this recognition came during a hearing session by the Senate Laws Committee on November 25, which content was briefed on by Echorouk, and it was devoted to the Finance Bill for 2021.

During the discussion, the commission’s rapporteur, Muriel Jourda, stated that the year 2019 witnessed the issuance of 275,000 residence permits within the framework of regular immigration, most of them to Algerians, Moroccans and Tunisians, noting that according to the instruction of the former Interior Minister, Manuel Valls for the year 2019, 244,000 immigrants have settled their status, for various reasons, including study, family reunification and economic migration (work).

In his response, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin referred to new measures on the Spanish border to stop the flow of Algerian illegal immigrants who arrive in Spain on boats.

In this regard, he said, “For the fourteenth time since the presidency of Francois Hollande, we have renewed our request regarding the application of exceptions in the Schengen space before the European Commission, especially in the context of terrorist attacks … We have finally obtained licenses to double the number of police and gendarmes to conduct border checks… We now have the capabilities that we were missing, especially on the Spanish border, which has become an increasingly important route for illegal immigration, especially for those coming from Algeria on boats reaching the Spanish coast”.

Gérald Darmanin spoke about the visa file, explaining that President Emmanuel Macron took a firm decision regarding last year’s visas (2019).

“Concerning visas, the president of the republic took a firm and strong decision last year regarding reducing the number of visas granted to Algeria”.

Darmanin indicated that he conducted a Maghreb tour to Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco at the request of President Macron, during which he explained to officials in these countries that it is an addition to the fight against terrorism, as France is committed to its obligations to implement France’s policy concerning immigration.

“Of course, we do not want to reduce economic cooperation nor the arrival of students, but we want to combine between the policy of visas and consular permits (obtained by consulates to expulse illegal immigrants without documents to their countries of origin), which are statements that include a clear tradeoff for the three Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia), either accept the deportation of illegal immigrants and grant them the necessary consular licenses or reduce the visa quotas for the nationals of these three countries.

According to Darmanin, Paris believes that this principle for dealing with the immigration file is not negotiable for persons registered in the file of alerts (notifications) to combat terrorist extremism, but it also applies to immigrants in general.

For years, Paris has been waving the visa paper in exchange for receiving illegal immigrants, especially from North African countries, in a step that clearly expresses France’s attempt to blackmail these countries, the latest of which was a response from the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs last September, during a debate in the Senate, in which it revealed ongoing efforts with Algeria and 6 other countries, namely Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea, to adopt the principle of visa in exchange for deporting these countries’ illegal immigrants from the French territory.

According to the response of the French Foreign Ministry at the time, the endeavour may lead to a reduction of visas granted to these countries if they do not cooperate sufficiently to deport their illegal immigrants from France and re-admit them to their countries of origin by obtaining consular licenses for them that enable them to enter their countries again.