Denver – In the wake of the diplomatic fallout between Morocco and Algeria, Algeria announced it would now prepare for the return of Algerian expatriates from Morocco to their native country.
Algerian FM Ramtane Lamamra led a meeting Wednesday that focused on potential strategies to ensure the return of Algerians living in Morocco.
During the meeting, Algerian officials focused on “means of facilitating the return to the homeland of the Algerian community established in Morocco” as a first step in its process of escalating the divided situation that exists between the two neighbors.
While it’s unclear how Algerian officials would implement the program, Algerian nationals currently make up a significant amount of the foreign community within Morocco. An estimate from Morocco’s government indicated Algerians were among the top three largest ex-pat communities in Morocco, comprising about 6.8% of Morocco’s foreign population in 2017.
However, presidential advisor Arsalane Chikahoui indicated that repatriation was merely the first step, and contemplated other avenues of separation as well. Among these, Chikahoui named “the closure of the maritime space, the establishment of travel visas and, ultimately, if necessary, the expulsion of Moroccan nationals established in Algeria.”
While there has been little indication of Rabat’s plans to reciprocate Algeria’s sentiment, officials in Algiers have steadily increased their provocative rhetoric and continued to separate the little connections the two countries shared.
In addition to severing diplomatic ties, Algeria recently announced its intentions to remove Morocco from a tripartite natural gas pipeline linking the two countries with Spain and the rest of Europe. The diplomatic conflict has since caused the closure of each countries’ diplomatic missions as well as an increase in tensions along the shared border between both countries.
