Algeria Blocks Deportation Flights from France amid Sahara Dispute

Algeria continues to express its anger against France, which has officially expressed its support for Morocco’s autonomy plan for the Sahara. After recalling its ambassador to Paris, Algeria has decided to use the migration weapon to make Paris pay for its new position on the Sahara.

According to Le Canard Enchaîné, Algiers systematically refuses the landing, in its airports, of its nationals expelled by France. These Algerians, under an Obligation to Leave French Territory (OQTF), are therefore brought back to France, pending their country’s acceptance to take them back.

Dozens of Algerian immigrants expelled by France are thus returning to the Hexagon, after a refusal by the Algerian authorities to disembark them at the airport. Some end up being released, laments the French media, stressing that Algeria has taken the habit of using illegal immigration as a means of pressure against France in times of crisis.

In a message addressed to King Mohammed VI on the occasion of the Throne Feast, French President Emmanuel Macron declared that for France, the Moroccan autonomy plan for the Sahara "now constitutes the only basis for reaching a just, lasting and negotiated political solution, in accordance with the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council".