France threatens to review Algeria migration pact in row over deportation

27/2/2025 6:21

France said on Wednesday it

would review a decades-old agreement that makes it easier for

Algerian citizens to move to France unless Algeria agrees to

take back those who are deported by the French authorities.



Already strained ties between Paris and Algiers have

worsened further after an Algerian citizen whom France had long

tried unsuccessfully to repatriate killed one person and injured

three in a knife attack in the city of Mulhouse on Saturday.



"The drama in Mulhouse was possible because this Algerian

citizen was under orders to leave the country and was presented

for repatriation 14 times... and each time refused," Prime

Minister Francois Bayrou told a news conference.



Under a 1968 pact between France and its former colony,

Algerian citizens enjoy several exceptions to French immigration

laws, making it easier to settle in France.



French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has repeatedly

called for the pact to be reviewed following the Algerian

authorities' refusal to take back its citizens who have been

ordered to leave France under the "OQTF" (obligation to leave

French territory) deportation regime.



Bayrou said Algeria's refusal to take back its citizens was

"a direct attack on the agreements we have with the Algerian

authorities and we will not accept it", adding that his

government would take four to six weeks to review Algiers'

implementation of the 1968 pact.



He said that over that period his government would present

to Algeria a list of people it believes should return to their

home country. He declined to say how many individuals are on the

list but said it was "substantial".



"If that is not the case, the government considers that the

advantages offered under (the 1968 agreement) will have to be

reconsidered... There is a strong feeling that the agreement has

been betrayed," Bayrou said.



Ties between Paris and Algiers have deteriorated in recent

months since France recognised Morocco's sovereignty over the

disputed territory of Western Sahara, which Rabat wants the

international community to recognise as Moroccan.



That decision has angered Algiers, which backs the Polisario

Front that is seeking an independent state.