Moroccan Filmmaker Stranded in Senegal After Losing French Residence Card

Arrived in Senegal on May 19 to participate in the Dakar Art Biennale, Ali Essafi, 59, was a thousand miles from imagining that he would face enormous difficulties for his return to France, scheduled for Thursday, May 26. The day before his departure, he lost his residence card. "I looked for it everywhere, in vain," he recounts, by phone, to Courrier de l’Atlas. "Since the next day was Ascension Thursday, I waited until Friday to go to the French embassy," continues the Moroccan filmmaker. "But I was not allowed to enter the premises. Even though I tried to explain my case to them, they kept telling me that I had to make an appointment first."

The man who has lived in France since 1982 then tries to reach them by phone. A manager of "Visa France Sénégal", a private company that handles visa applications for the French embassy, receives the call and explains to him that he will have to follow the usual procedure. "I am being treated like any person who wants to go to France for the first time, even though I have been a permanent resident for 40 years in a country where I pay my taxes and where I have the responsibility of my 7-year-old daughter who doesn’t understand why her daddy is not coming home!" he gets annoyed.

His contacts have also undertaken steps that have proven fruitless. "Friends have contacted French ambassadors from other countries, who told them they could do nothing. I called the prefecture of Indre-et-Loire who explained to me that they too could do nothing and that I had to obtain a return visa issued by the embassy," the nearly sexagenarian still recounts. He then resigns himself to making an online visa application. So far, he has not yet prevailed.

The French resident is struggling with this situation. He intends to file a complaint against the French state. "And I will also apply for French nationality," he promises. "Because I no longer want to risk being separated from my daughter."