France and Morocco in Talks to Ease Visa Restrictions

"In recent days, telephone and videoconference contacts between the officials of Foreign Affairs and the Interior of the two countries have been multiplied in order to reach an agreement on the settlement of this problem," said a source close to the file to Le360. According to his explanations, delegation exchanges were planned, but the health crisis related to Covid-19 has slowed down these projects. She also specified that the negotiations have not progressed any further.

Another action taken: a delegation from the CGEM, led by Abdelillah Hifdi, vice-president of the House of Advisors, also president of the National Federation of Road Transport, an affiliate of the employers’ confederation, initiated a meeting with the French ambassador in Rabat, Hélène Le Gal, to look into the case of Moroccan truck drivers, to whom France refuses to grant visas. French consulates have rejected hundreds of visa applications in recent months for drivers of international road transport (TIR) companies that provide transport to Europe, and this, for unjustified reasons.

Paris had decided at the end of September to reduce by 50% the granting of visas for Moroccans and Algerians and by 30% for Tunisians because Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia do not allow the return, it is accused, of their expelled nationals.