UAE Stops Issuing Visas To Algerians

The UAE authorities confirmed that they stopped granting visas to enter their territories, and the decision includes citizens of 13 countries, including Algeria, there has been no official information a few days ago, and the Algerian Foreign Ministry quickly denied it.

The UAE Foreign Minister, Abdullah bin Zayed said that the restrictions imposed on some visas are temporary due to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the official Emirates News Agency.

This came during the visit of Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to the UAE, on Sunday, where Bin Zayed said his country “welcomes the Pakistani community, as more than 1.5 million of the Pakistani community enjoy safety, security and stability in their second country, the United Arab Emirates”, asserting that the restrictions imposed on some visas are temporary due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Al-Arabiya channel said, “The UAE stopped issuing visas to citizens of 13 countries during the past period without mentioning the reasons, which sparked a lot of speculation”.

Al-Arabiya enumerated the countries included in the decision, and stated, “The decision included stopping work and visit visas for those present outside the country, and citizens of 13 countries including Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and Yemen, in addition to Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Kenya and Pakistan”.

Abu Dhabi’s justification for freezing the granting of visas to Algerians, due to the Coronavirus, seems unconvincing, given that the infection rates in Algeria are very weak, compared to the Emirates, which recorded 1077 cases, on Monday, which raises the total number of infections to more than 194.000 cases, while the total infections in Algeria are only 95.000 cases, with a huge difference in the number of people.

At the end of last November, Reuters reported a document issued by the UAE-owned business complex, confirming that citizens of 13 countries were prevented from entering their lands, including Algeria, after days of controversy over the validity of the decision.

The document, which was distributed to the companies operating in the complex and that was checked out by Reuters, referred to a post from the Immigration Department, which came into force on the 18th of this month.

According to the document and “Reuters”, the applications for work or visit visas are suspended for those outside the country from citizens of 13 countries, including Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Iran, Syria, Somalia, Kenya, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Tunisia and Turkey until further notice.

After that, the Algerian services of the foreign ministry denied the information that was leaked, instead of the UAE doing so, and the Foreign Ministry statement said at the time, “Some foreign media and social media websites promoted news claiming that the name of Algeria was included in a document issued by an official body of the United Arab Emirates prohibiting Algerians from obtaining an entry visa to the UAE, along with citizens of other countries”.

The services of Minister Sabri Boukadoum added, “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that this news is false and has nothing to do with the truth and that the UAE higher authorities have confirmed their denials, in whole and detail, because of the existence of a decision that includes Algerian citizens to prevent entry to their lands, and that the promoted document in which the name of Algeria was included is forged and suspicious parties are behind it”.

In 2014, the UAE previously issued a decision to prevent visas for Algerians, under the age of forty, and the matter required at that time to summon the Emirati ambassador by the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide explanations about the UAE authorities’ decision.