France Tightens Policy on Deporting Radicalized Maghreb Nationals

As part of its strategy to fight terrorism and radicalization, France is determined to expel several dozen "radicalized" Maghrebians to their countries of origin. An option that requires the agreement of the countries concerned. This is the meaning of the recent trips of French ministers to these three countries, not inclined to recover their S-listed nationals, that is, potentially dangerous persons.

As a means of pressure, "Darmanin had in his pocket a means of pressure: either these countries accept France’s expulsion requests, and visa issuance will continue as before; or they refuse them, and then the number of visas, both tourist and professional, will be reduced," reports Le Canard enchaîné.

This Sunday, Clément Beaune, French Secretary of State for European Affairs, confirmed, announcing that France was considering a "targeted" reduction for countries that would refuse to take back their irregular nationals, particularly the "radicalized" ones.

"We have levers to do this, for example visas [...] by targeting political leaders, economic leaders. Yes, it is one of the levers that the President of the Republic, that the Minister of the Interior is considering," he added, reports AFP.

According to the French Ministry of the Interior, France, which has 231 irregular foreigners under surveillance for "radicalization," including about sixty Tunisians, as many Moroccans and a little more Algerians, has made their expulsion a priority.