Paris Refuses To Expand Compensation For Algerian Victims

An official report issued by the French Senate’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Armed Forces, concerning the bill to recognize victims of French nuclear tests and improve their compensation, revealed that Paris has maintained the compensation conditions specific to Algeria without any expansion, while rejecting amendments that aimed in this direction.

In contrast, extensive proposals were introduced in favor of those affected in French Polynesia, which confirms France’s continued selective approach in addressing the issue of victims of nuclear explosions it conducted in the Algerian Sahara during the dark colonial era.

This French stance was revealed through an official report by the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Armed Forces in the Senate, the upper house of parliament, prepared by its rapporteur François Noël Buffet, dated May 20, 2026, a copy of which “Echorouk” reviewed.

The report stated that France conducted a total of 210 nuclear tests between 1960 and 1966, including 17 tests in the Algerian Sahara. These included four atmospheric tests in the Reggane region between 1960 and 1961, and 13 underground tests in the In Ekker region between 1961 and 1966, before the nuclear test center was moved to French Polynesia.

The report elaborates on the development of the compensation system for victims of French nuclear tests, starting with the “Morin Law” of 2010, which for the first time recognized the right of affected individuals to compensation. However, it also acknowledges that the first years of implementing the law were “unsatisfactory,” as the percentage of accepted compensation files did not exceed 3% between 2010 and 2017, due to the adoption of criteria that victims’ associations and human rights organizations considered complex and restrictive.

The report also indicates that the investigative committee of the French National Assembly, which concluded its work in June 2025, recommended restoring the “logic of full state responsibility,” while expanding the scope of beneficiaries and abolishing some restrictions that prevented the acceptance of thousands of files.

However, these amendments primarily focused on the situation in French Polynesia, while leaving the situation in the Algerian Sahara without substantial modification.

In this context, the report highlights that Article 2 of the new bill does not change the compensation conditions related to French nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara. The same areas and time periods in effect since the 2010 law have been maintained, meaning individuals who resided or were present between February 13, 1960, and December 31, 1967, at the Saharan military test center or its surrounding areas, and between November 7, 1961, and December 31, 1967, at the Oasis military test center and its adjacent areas, without any new geographical expansion to include other areas that may have been affected by nuclear radiation.

The report stated that the amendment proposed by Senator Akli Mellouli, of Algerian origin, to Article 40 of the law was rejected. This amendment aimed to expand the scope of spatial conditions for compensation for tests conducted in Algeria to include “all areas where radioactive fallout resulting from French nuclear tests has been proven to exist or can be scientifically proven to exist.”

The same committee also deleted an article that was included during the public session for presenting the law, submitted by the “La France Insoumise” bloc. This article aimed to prepare a report on nuclear tests in Algeria, to be submitted by the French government within 6 months after the law’s promulgation. It would include a detailed inventory of all available information about France’s nuclear test policy in Algeria, and a reference list of key historical and scientific sources on the subject, as well as a map of known archival collections.

However, the report clarifies that the committee, at the initiative of its rapporteur, proposed an amendment to delete this article, justifying it by stating that work related to memory falls more within the purview of independent historical research, rather than the tasks of a governmental body.

In contrast, the French bill expanded the scope of compensation in French Polynesia to include its entire territory during the period of atmospheric tests between 1966 and 1974, with the inclusion of new categories of victims, including those “indirectly affected” and children of women exposed to radiation during pregnancy, in addition to reviewing previous rejection decisions and re-examining more than a thousand files that were previously dismissed.

The report also acknowledges significant shortcomings in the management of nuclear test files, both in terms of insufficient protection and inadequate information provided to the population. It confirms that some atmospheric tests led to radioactive fallout in inhabited areas due to errors in weather forecasts or changes in wind direction. It also admitted that French authorities sometimes failed to take protective measures for the population despite prior knowledge of the danger posed by radioactive clouds.

The report also discusses criticisms directed at the committee responsible for reviewing compensation claims, due to its reliance on estimated radiation doses based on incomplete or inaccurate data, as well as its reliance on data issued by the French Atomic Energy Commission itself, the body that oversaw the implementation of the nuclear tests. This raised accusations of conflicts of interest and a lack of trust in the damage assessment mechanisms.

According to the figures in the report, the value of compensation paid by France to victims of nuclear tests from 2010 to 2025 amounted to approximately 108 million euros, benefiting only 1,538 cases.