For citizens of North Africa, obtaining a visa for Schengen Area countries is an obstacle course. This journey begins with the appointment for the presentation of the file, subject to a lucrative exchange. After this stage, the responses to requests are often negative and the reasons for refusals vague or incongruous. Algerians, Moroccans and Tunisians are the unloved of Europe and have enormous difficulties in obtaining this travel document. To this must be added the treatment to which these citizens are subjected by the consulates of the countries of the European Union.
It is in this context that some citizens are rebelling. In Morocco, on November 19, the Moroccan Coalition of Human Rights Organizations, which brings together around twenty NGOs, denounced the “humiliating and degrading treatment” of some consulates of European Union member countries in Morocco towards applicants the visa.
These organizations have protested against this behavior in an open letter addressed to Patricia Llombard, EU ambassador in Rabat. In this letter, the collective points out that this treatment “has intensified recently” and adds that visa refusals have become systematic.
Thus, the cup is full for the Moroccans. The Spanish news agency EFE, which reported the information, indicates that these NGOs have criticized the “significant and surprising” reduction in the number of visas by the “voluntary, total or partial” closure of appointment booking platforms. . They also criticized the fact that consulates fail to provide explanations for rejected applications and fail to refund application fees to applicants whose applications have been rejected.
The open letter takes the case of France as an example, which since September 2021 has officially halved the granting of visas to Moroccans. disrespectful manner towards the citizens of the Kingdom. It should be noted that Emmanuel Macron once again defended the visa restriction measure for Algerians and Moroccans on November 20. The French president will therefore continue to pursue the same policy towards the citizens of these two countries.
