Maghrebi anger at France's shift in its migration policy
Algeria has become the first Maghreb country to "strongly protest" against the French government's move to drastically reduce the number of visas for travellers from Algeria itself, as well as Morocco and Tunisia. The Algerian Foreign Ministry summoned and notified the French ambassador, François Gouyette, of the "formal protest against a unilateral decision by the French government that will affect the quality and fluidity of movement of Algerian travellers to France".
Morocco had already described the measure as "unjustified", while Tunisia had issued no official reaction. However, unofficial media in both countries alluded to the "fracture" that France is causing in its cooperative relations with these three majors Arab-French-speaking countries.
Although the decree of President Emmanuel Macron's government enters clearly electioneering territory, it is a clamour in France that levels of illegal immigration have reached unbearable levels, paving the way for the exacerbated nationalism of Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) to have a better chance than ever of winning the Elysée Palace. The latter's promises to call a specific referendum on the migration issue, coupled with a general law imposing a preference for French nationals to occupy any job, are listened to with pleasure and complacency in more than a few neighbourhoods and cities where the police dare not enter. There is the denunciation of the Socialist senator and deputy mayor of Marseilles, Samia Ghali, who openly called for the direct intervention of the army to fight the drug mafias, given the impotence of the police.
The exponential increase in crime has caused tensions to rise so high in some localities that it is no longer only RN candidates and activists who are also calling on the government to put a stop to the 'Islamisation' of French society. This is an additional issue, but one with a huge backdrop, caused by the feeling of discrimination felt by the second and third generation of French Arabs, but aggravated by the massive arrival of illegal immigrants who stir up those already settled in France against the injustice of their discrimination, radicalise more than a few young people in the process of deciding their personal path, and impose Sharia law in their neighbourhoods, which have become veritable ghettos.
It is this illegal immigration, most of which arrived in small boats, first in Spain and then via the peninsula, that France intends to stop by repatriating them to their respective countries of origin. However, this determination has come up against a major obstacle, quantified by the French authorities: the delay, if not outright refusal of the Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian consulates to issue the necessary consular laissez-passer for the repatriation of illegal immigrants.
Gabriel Attal, the French government spokesman, who described the decision as "drastic and unprecedented, but necessary", implicitly recognised the failure of the initiative on the basis of his official data, widely aired in the French media. According to Europe1, the straw that broke the camel's back was the statistics for the first half of 2021, which showed the repatriation of only 22 illegal Algerians out of a total of 7,731 detected and subject to expulsion proceedings. That is, only 0.2%, while Morocco readmitted 2.4% of 3,301 and Tunisia readmitted 4% of its 3,224 nationals reported for illegal entry into France.
Naturally, the sharp reduction in visas for entry into France for travellers from Algeria and Morocco (50%) and Tunisia (30%) is a blow both for those who aspire to emigrate legally and for occasional travellers, whose visa applications are rejected. It is precisely these travellers who, instead of blaming France alone, also blame their respective governments for inaction. Le Monde quotes travel agency directors such as Tunisian Choukri Boubaker: "Our leaders have been sleeping since November 2020. France had warned them, and they have done nothing. It is up to our government to move and fix the problem of illegal travellers so that legal travellers can travel normally".
The French measure also has a strong impact on Spain. For nine months now, surveillance at the border has become much more intense, and the number of illegal migrants who have been rejected and sent back to the Basque Country, Catalonia and Navarre has grown exponentially. It seems obvious that this rejection will intensify from now on.