The diplomatic discord between Algeria and France deepened Sunday after Algiers banned French military planes from its airspace, its latest response to a row over visas and critical comments from President Emmanuel Macron. France’s jets regularly fly over the former French colony to reach the Sahel region of West Africa, where its soldiers are helping to battle jihadist insurgents as part of its Operation Barkhane.
A spokesperson for the French Armed Forces said Algeria had closed its airspace to two flights, but that it would have “no major consequences” for operations in the Sahel region.
This morning when we filed flight plans for two planes, we learned that the Algerians had stopped flights over their territory by French military planes,” French Armed Forces spokesman, Colonel Pascal Ianni, told AFP.
Paris said the decision had been made necessary by the former colonies’ failure to do enough to allow illegal migrants in France to be returned.
When a French court denies a person’s visa request, authorities must still secure a consular travel pass from his or her home country in order to forcibly expel them, a document that Paris says Algiers, Rabat and Tunis are largely refusing to provide.
Macron has reportedly ordered the number of visa deliveries to Algeria and Morocco to be halved from 2020 levels, and by a third for Tunisia. The Algerian foreign ministry summoned France’s ambassador François Gouyette on Wednesday to make a “formal protest” of the visa ruling.
Source: IOL
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