French Lawmakers Demand Action for Citizens Stranded in Morocco Amid COVID-19 Travel Restrictions

The deputy has reported the situation of French and foreign residents in France, stranded abroad, to the Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian. The leader of "La France insoumise" claims to have received many alerts from people who are currently stranded in Algeria or Morocco due to the cancellation of the majority of flights in these times of covid-19.

According to him, these people are not getting any information or assistance from the French embassy or consulates and are forced to go directly to the airport to try to negotiate their boarding passes with Air France staff. The elected official points out that some people have now been stranded there for two months, waiting for a hypothetical return date.

"No order of priority (medical, family, professional) seems to be respected; and although they hold a return ticket, several people testify that they had to pay non-negligible sums to be able to board," he notes. According to the testimonies received by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the only flights maintained are to Paris and people with tickets to other destinations in the territory are disembarked in Paris where no proper rerouting solution is offered to them.

"These malfunctions are causing difficult, even dramatic, situations for many of the people concerned: deplorable health conditions at Algiers airport where precautionary measures are not respected, sick people further weakened by this wait and sometimes running out of treatment, employees prevented from returning to work, children unable to reunite with their families," the deputy stresses.

Based on these findings, Jean-Luc Melechon reminds the government that it is its responsibility to allow French citizens and foreign residents in France to return home as soon as possible and under the best conditions. For him, it is abnormal that the management of these repatriations is left to the sole discretion of Air France staff.