*Xavier Driancourt, Ambassador of France to Algeria from 2008 to 2012 and then from 2017 to 2020, is the author of “The Algerian Enigma. Chronicles of the Embassy in Algeria” (Editions de L’Observatoire, 2022),
LE FIGARO. – Lola’s case draws public attention to obligations to leave French territory (OQTF), which are almost always not fulfilled. Some countries, notably Algeria, refuse to take back their citizens who have illegally entered or remained in France. Why?
Xavier DRIENCOURT. – Many countries refuse to take back illegal immigrants, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mali. There are several reasons for this refusal. On the one hand, I have often heard in Algeria a rather insidious argument, officially voiced by Algerian diplomats at high-level meetings, that these irregularities are the fruit of a “certain Westernization”, that our “bad education” would somehow be “contaminated” by our ” with bad manners” and we are not…
Source: Le Figaro
