The Prime Minister of France, Michel Barnier, has made a proposal to tighten further the Schengen visa granting rules for countries that refuse to readmit their nationals who stay in France irregularly.
During a press conference, Prime Minister Barnier said that the country no longer has satisfactory control over its migration policy, stressing that measures need to be taken against countries that are blocking repatriations, Schengen.News reports.
Even though Barnier did not explicitly say for which countries visa rules should be tightened, it is believed that the measure is aimed at Maghreb countries, as some of them have been refusing to issue the consular passes needed for the expulsion of their nationals that remain irregularly within the territory of France.
As Webdo explains, the proposal to tighten the visa rules for countries that refuse to take back their nationals comes after a Moroccan national who was issued an obligation to leave the French territory (OQTF) murdered a Filipino student in Paris.
Taking into account this event and in an attempt to ensure more safety and security for citizens of the country, Prime Minister Barnier said that the country wants to also “facilitate the exceptional extension of the detention of illegal immigrants.”
Following irregular migration concerns, back in 2021, France reduced the number of visas for Algerians, Moroccans, and Tunisians. The number of visas granted for Algerians and Moroccans was cut by 50 per cent and for Tunisians by 30 per cent.
Moroccans, Algerians & Tunisians Applied for a High Number of French Visas in 2023
Data provided by the Schengen Visa Statistics portal show that nationals of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia applied for a high number of French Schengen visas last year.
In 2023, Moroccan passport holders filed a total of 310,057 French visa applications. During the same year, Algerians filed 279,005 French visa applications, and Tunisians filed 85,917 visa applications.
However, since France has reduced the number of visas granted for these nationalities, not everyone received a positive response to their application.
Data show that in 2023, France issued 251,950 Schengen visas to Moroccan nationals, 185,832 visas for Algerian nationals, and 71451 visas for Tunisian nationals.
As for the rejection numbers, they stand at 55,615, 93,151, and 17,271 for nationals of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, respectively.