Samia* is “disgusted”. This 67-year-old Moroccan pensioner has not seen her youngest son, who is studying higher education in Savoy, for three years because she has not been able to obtain a visa to go to France to visit him. “It’s not tomorrow that I’m going to make another request,” she confesses to BFMTV.com. “It will take time for me to recover from this offense.”
This former professor of French language and literature, who lives in Marrakech, was used to coming to France for tourism. His eldest son also studied there before moving to the Paris region to become a robotics engineer.
But his last two visa applications were rejected. With the reason “the information provided to justify the object and the conditions of your stay are not reliable” for the first refusal. “There are reasonable doubts about their willingness to leave the territory of the Member States before the expiration of the visa” for the second.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Samia continues to be surprised, denouncing an arbitrary decision. “However, I did hand in my checking account statements, my savings account, a welcome certificate made in the rules by my eldest son.”
“My round-trip plane ticket had been purchased, a rental had been booked for us to spend the holidays together, the visa fees had been paid,” he continues. “All for nothing. I’m angry.”
A private concert artist, congress doctors.
From September 2021, France has decided to halve the number of visas granted to Moroccan and Algerian citizens, and reduce those granted to Tunisians by 30%; this restriction was recently lifted for Tunisia. A decision that Morocco considered “unjustified”. At the origin of these measures: France criticizes these three countries for their lack of cooperation in repatriating their nationals in an irregular situation in France.
This summer, the issue sparked controversy when Moroccan rapper El Grande Toto had to cancel his concert in Sète due to lack of a visa, before the French embassy finally backed down. remember the Moroccan weekly As it is. A few months earlier, it was a delegation of Moroccan ophthalmologists who were deprived of visas, thus preventing them from participating in a medical congress and presenting their work, reports The world.
Visa denials arousing outrage in Moroccan society. Writer Mokhtar Chaoui is also irritated in a post on his Facebook page.calling on the Moroccan population to “snub(r) this France that humiliates you”.
An “absurd” measure
“Absurd” visa restrictions, laments BFMTV.com Senator LR Christian Cambon, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and chairman of the France-Morocco friendship group. “This measure is applied without any discernment, it makes no sense.” He also recently alerted the French government on the issue.
Because according to him, this situation could jeopardize France’s relations with the kingdom. “Morocco, a friendly country with which we have very strong ties, both militarily and economically, intellectually and culturally, takes this issue very seriously,” he warns.
“It is very humiliating for Moroccans. The visa issue will become a real obstacle for any discussion on any issue with the country.”
These visa refusals are experienced as a collective punishment by the Moroccans affected. Badr *, a 30-year-old computer engineer, was unable to attend the wedding of his French-Moroccan sister this summer.
“I presented a resource guarantee of 13,000 euros accumulated, I delivered my payroll, my sister’s, her tax notice, her passport, a certificate from my employer certifying that I was on sick leave,” she tells BFMTV.com. “It was not enough”.
His visa application was denied, as were those of the other members of his family who wanted to participate in the party.
“All this to go out for four days. At my sister’s wedding there was no one from her family. It was very sad for her and for us.”
“A mother sold her house for nothing”
Artists, doctors, lawyers, businessmen, students or retirees denied visas… Youssef El Idrissi El Hassani, president of the Franco-Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AFMDH), accuses France of carrying out an “unfair” policy against a-vis-a the Moroccan population.
“I had people crying on the phone who don’t know what to do anymore,” he is outraged for BFMTV.com. “A mother told me that she had sold her house to finance her son’s studies in France, but he couldn’t leave. Some took loans and got into debt for nothing.”
“France wants to make the Moroccan government pay, but what are people doing in all this?” he asks.
It evokes grotesque situations, like this Moroccan woman who has a residence permit but has lost the precious document. However, she had signed a Republican integration contract and was called up to train in early October. Deprived of a return visa, she is stranded in Morocco when her husband, a resident of France, finds himself on the other side of the Mediterranean.
“It’s a shame for France”
Bel Miloudi El Kebir is just as outraged. This former divisional chief tax inspector, member of the central office of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) and representative of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), had never encountered any difficulty in obtaining a visa for France during his travels. previous. . But this year he suffered two refusals, which he saw very badly.
“It’s an attack on dignity,” he protests to BFMTV.com. “I am not a terrorist and I am not seeking to immigrate illegally! I am a victim of French politics.”
The 64-year-old retiree who lives in Khémisset, in the Rabat region, had planned to travel to France at the beginning of the year to meet friends and meet with representatives of civil society. He also had to go through France to get to Belgium to visit his daughter who was about to give birth. “I was deprived of the right to see my granddaughter. She is a shame for France.”
In September 2021, guest of BFMTV-RMC, Gérald Darmanin took over this policy. “Some of the Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian compatriots who are on French soil are no longer accepted by these countries,” said the Minister of the Interior. “You do not accept your countrymen, we do not accept your countrymen.” A year later, requested by BFMTV.com, the Home Office did not respond.
* The first names of the witnesses have been changed at their request.
Source: BFM TV
