Algeria Rejects France’s Migration Ultimatum Amid Rising Diplomatic Tensions
Algeria firmly opposes France’s threats over migration agreements, vowing strict reciprocity as diplomatic tensions escalate between the two nations.
Watan-The Algerian Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that it “categorically rejects being addressed with deadlines, ultimatums, and threats,” following a warning from French Prime Minister François Bayrou that all bilateral agreements on migration issues could be canceled within a month or six weeks.
In a statement, the ministry said that “Algeria categorically rejects being addressed with deadlines, ultimatums, and threats, and it will strictly and immediately apply the principle of reciprocity to all restrictions imposed on movement between Algeria and France, without ruling out any other measures that national interests may necessitate.”
On Wednesday, France threatened to reconsider the 1968 agreements that facilitate residency, travel, and employment conditions for Algerians, amid escalating tensions fueled by a knife attack that left one person dead and six others injured in Mulhouse (east).
Algeria Rejects France’s Migration Pressure Amid Diplomatic Rift
The attack was carried out by an Algerian national who had been ordered to leave French territory, but the deportation was not enforced due to Algeria’s repeated refusal to take him back, according to Paris.
Prime Minister François Bayrou argued that the French people are “direct victims of the refusal to implement” the 1968 agreements, stating that the Algerian authorities had been asked “fourteen times” to take back their citizen.
While Bayrou stressed that he does not want an “escalation” between France and Algeria, he gave the Algerian government a deadline of four to six weeks to review an “urgent list of individuals who should be able to return to their country.”
Earlier on Thursday, the French government confirmed that its request for Algeria to reconsider “all agreements” related to migration was an “outstretched hand” and an attempt to restore “calm” in relations between the two countries.
Government spokesperson Sophie Primas told BFM TV and RMC radio, “It is an outstretched hand, meaning that we signed agreements in 1968, and today Algeria is violating these agreements, which it has never respected.”
Primas added, “We are exploring all possibilities to try to achieve calm relations with Algeria.”
Algeria-France Tensions Escalate Over Migration and Diplomacy
She explained that the goal is “to preserve this [1968 migration] agreement to the extent that it is being implemented, and to ensure that we have calm and normal diplomatic relations with Algeria.”
Primas also renewed France’s request for the release of French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, adding that France is “closely monitoring” the situation of “certain senior Algerian figures” whose visas France may “reassess.”
She further estimated that there are “around twenty” countries with which France seeks to improve the process of returning deported nationals.
In a sign of rising tensions, Algeria’s upper house of parliament, the Council of the Nation, announced on Wednesday the “immediate suspension of its relations” with the French Senate. This move was in protest against a visit earlier this week by Senate President Gérard Larcher to Western Sahara, a disputed territory between Morocco and the Algeria-backed Polisario Front.
