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Join on Telegram Rabat – Morocco’s National Federation of Consumer Rights (FMDC) addressed on Wednesday a letter to France’s embassy in Rabat, in which it called on the diplomatic office to urge French consulates to refund applicants whose visa requests were rejected.
“The restrictions of the granting of this document were imposed by the French government without having informed the consumer applying for a visa of the new terms of issue,” the federation said in its letter.
The intermediary company between the consulate and applicants does not have the legal authority to possess and hold the personal data of the applicants, the letter addressed to the French embassy argued.
Data from website Schengen Visa Info said that the number of Moroccans who received visas from French consulates was 69,408 in 2021, compared to 98,627 in 2020.
Visa application rejections have caused mounting concerns from Moroccans, who criticized the European country’s unjustified denials.
Many Moroccan citizens took to social networks to condemn France’s unjustified Schengen visa rejections, including a Moroccan woman living in France.
At the time, a French consulate in Morocco rejected a family visit visa for a mother and grandmother to attend her brother’s wedding in Paris.
The Moroccan woman received support from many Moroccans, as well as from France’s former Minister of Territorial Development Cecile Duflot.
The former official responded to the Moroccan woman’s tweets, urging the French embassy in Morocco to intervene and allow the family to reunite and attend their relative’s wedding.
French Senator Yan Chantel also criticized his country’s approach to reducing the number of visas granted to people from North Africa for purely political reasons.
In September 2021, the French government decided to reduce the number of visas granted to citizens from Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria.
France attempted to justify its decision, by claiming the countries in question were not doing enough to facilitate the return of people residing in France without legal documents.
Under the decision, France decided to cut by 50% the number of visas issued to Moroccan and Algerian citizens. Macron’s government decided to reduce the number of visas issued to Tunisians by 30%.
Morocco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Bourita responded to the French government’s decision, describing it as “unjustified.”
“Morocco has always dealt with the issue of migration and the movement of individuals with great responsibility and balance,” Bourita said. He emphasized that the North African country aims to facilitate the movement of students and businessmen, while simultaneously countering irregular migration.
Bourita continued to add that the decision from France “betrays consular cooperation,” vowing that Rabat will look into the situation further, despite it “not reflecting well on bilateral cooperation between the two countries.”
In addition to the growing number of visa rejections, the long waiting period to obtain a Schengen visa has also caused concerns from many non-EU citizens from third countries.
Read Also: Schengen Visa: Travelers From Third Countries Face Long Waiting Times
