France ends visa-free entry for Algerian diplomats

France has re-imposed visa requirements for holders of Algerian diplomatic passports, in reaction to Algeria’s refusal to take its nationals expelled by France for violating local laws.

Some 10,000 members of the Algerian nomenklatura and their families have diplomatic passports, offering them visa-free access to France under a bilateral deal signed in 2007.

French interior minister Bruno Retailleux had warned that Paris would take graduated measures after Algeria doubled down on rejecting its own nationals sent by France for their involvement in criminal activity in France.

Algeria has taken economic retaliatory measures against French companies, arrested a French-Algerian novelist for mentioning the colonial origin of Algeria’s borders and engaged in warmongering against France, since Paris recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara territory.

Violent incidents involving Algerian nationals living illegally in France have put additional pressure on the interior minister who said France would take further sanctions to ensure Algeria takes its nationals back.

Relations worsened significantly following the Mulhouse attack in early March 2025, when an Algerian national, who had been subject to 14 unsuccessful deportation attempts by French authorities, carried out a knife attack killing a passer-by and injuring three police officers.

The French right is calling on the government to review the 1968 deals which grant Algerians preferential terms in settling in France.