France Reduces Visas in Spat With Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia

(Bloomberg) -- The French government will reduce the number of visas granted to citizens of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia to protest over these countries’ refusal to facilitate the return of their nationals who are in an irregular situation in France.

French government spokesman Gabriel Attal said the measure comes after Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia continue to refuse granting such nationals so-called consular passes to return to their countries.

“We had a dialog with certain Maghreb countries, then came the threats,” Attal said in a Europe1 radio interview on Tuesday. “Today we are carrying out these threats.”

French President Emmanuel Macron has decided to halve the number of visas issued to Algerian and Moroccan nationals and by 30% for Tunisians, taking 2020 as the reference year, Europe1 reported earlier.

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