France Strips Citizenship from 16 Dual Nationals over Terrorism, Sparking Maghreb Tensions

In total, 16 dual nationals have lost their French nationality, due to the relatively restrictive conditions of deprivation of nationality since 1998 and the entry of this measure into Article 25 of the Civil Code, recalls L’express.

The deprivation of nationality is the source of diplomatic tensions between France and the countries of origin of the persons concerned. While legal appeals are underway in some cases, it is expulsions to Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia that are observed in other cases.

According to Nicolas Hervieu, Professor of Public Law, "these States are not necessarily delighted to have to welcome on their territory someone who has been convicted of terrorism elsewhere".

Tunisia is the country that opposes the measure the most among the Maghreb countries. "We cannot tolerate that brainless fanatics who grew up in Clichy or Saint-Denis come to instill values foreign to those of Tunisia" because "our culture is light years away from the sermons of the imam of Drancy and the Islam practiced in the French suburbs," declared, on January 22, 2016, the Tunisian President, Béji Caïd Essebsi.

For their part, Algeria and Morocco are conciliatory. "These countries ’take back’ willingly their effective or paper nationals, some of whom are also wanted there in the context of criminal proceedings, or who could, in any case, contribute to the fight against terrorism" by being subjected to counter-interrogations, says Delphine Perrin, Doctor of Public Law and specialist in the law of nationality and migration.