The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Morocco, Nasser Bourita, has said that his country will take back its nationals who have migrated irregularly to the European Union and who have been issued an order to leave the bloc.
Through an official statement, Minister Bourita said that Morocco is ready to repatriate its nationals who are staying on irregular bases within the territory of the EU, suggesting that the country will take all the necessary measures to complete such a mission effectively, Schengen.News reports.
The announcement on the repatriation of Moroccan nationals comes after France said that it would tighten the visa rules for all countries that do not agree to cooperate on the matter and following the arrest of an undocumented Moroccan in France over the suspicion of murder.
The arrested Moroccan national was not removed from the country despite having been issued with a deportation order. Once the unfortunate event took place, the Moroccan authorities were blamed for failing to issue an emergency passport to return him to the country.
As Info Migrants explains, Minister Bourita stressed that they would take the necessary steps, saying that they were not sure if “the other party” was ready to conduct returns.
Moreover, in response to being blamed for failing to issue the needed documents, Minister Bourita said that the country does not need to receive any lessons on migration management.
France Said It Wants to Impose Stricter Visa Rules for Countries Blocking Repatriations
The Prime Minister of France, Michel Barnier, proposed last week that the country further tightens the Schengen visa issuing rules for countries that are not cooperating with the readmission of their nationals staying irregularly in its territory.
Despite Barnier not saying which countries the visa rules should be tightened, it was assumed that the measure is aimed at Maghreb countries as some of them have not issued consular passes to their nationals, which remain irregularly in France.
France already reduced the number of Schengen visas granted to nationals of Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia back in 2021.
The number of visas for Algerians and Moroccans was reduced by 50 per cent and the number of visas for Tunisians was cut by 30 per cent.
Data from the Schengen Statistics portal show that nationals of these threw country apply for a high number of Schengen visas each year. Last year, nationals of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia filed a total of 279,005, 310,057, and 85,917 French Schengen visa applications, respectively.
Source: https://schengen.news/frances-proposal-to-tighten-visa-rules-pushes-morocco-to-take-back-its-irregular-nationals-in-eu/
