After an interdepartmental committee on immigration, the Prime Minister announced that he wanted to “re -examine” the agreements between France and Algeria. A statement that comes against a background of increasing tensions with Algiers.
François Bayrou wants to “re -examine” the 1968 agreements with Algeria. After an interdepartmental committee on immigration, which was held this Wednesday, February 26 in Matignon on Wednesday, February 26, the Prime Minister announced to the press that he was going to ask Algiers “that all the agreements be re -examined and the way in which (they) are executed”, all within four to six weeks.
France and Algeria are going through a period of increasing tension, which has accentuated with the difficulty that France to expel certain Algerian nationals under the fact of an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF). This was notably the case with the influencer Doualemn, but also of the main suspect in the Mulhouse attack at the end of January. It was this attack that prompted François Bayrou to bring together this inter -ministerial committee. Suspected of being the author of the murder of a stabbing person, and having injured seven others in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin), the 37-year-old Algerian was under an OQTF and was presented “14 times” to the Algerian authorities who have always refused to take it back, according to François Bayrou. The Prime Minister also considered that “the victims we have known in Mulhouse this weekend are the direct victims of the refusal to apply these agreements” of 1968.
What do these agreements provide?
When François Bayrou refers to the 1968 agreements, he talks about the Evian agreements. Signed on December 27, 1968 in Evian, they were essential for relations between France and Algeria after the war. After the declaration of independence of Algeria in 1962, the two countries wished to sign these agreements to govern their economic relations.
In addition to economic cooperation between the two countries and the landfill rights, the 1968 agreements also provided for the free movement of workers as well as the facilitation of their recruitment. These are the points that crystallize the tensions today between Paris and Algiers. After these agreements, many Algerian workers were able to come to France, mainly to work in the industrial sector, which caused an important migratory flow. This is called the free movement of Algerian workers. In addition, the recruitment conditions of these workers were facilitated. The agreements specify the working conditions of workers and provide for social protections.