France calls for Europe to co-operate on expulsion of undocumented migrants

France’s foreign minister said Wednesday that he wanted “all” European countries to co-operate and start cutting back visas available to nationals of countries that refuse to take back illegal migrants expelled by Paris.

Jean-Noël Barrot spoke after an Algerian-born man went on a stabbing rampage in the eastern French city of Mulhouse at the weekend, killing one person and wounding several others in what President Emmanuel Macroncalled an “Islamist terrorist act”.

The 37-year-old suspect was on a terrorism watch list and subject to a deportation order.

France sought to expel him multiple times, but Algeria refused to cooperate, French authorities say.

“If a country does not cooperate with the French authorities, I will propose that all European countries restrict the issuing of visas at the same time,” Barrot told broadcaster France 2.

“When we do it on a national level, it doesn’t work unfortunately,” he added.

But if foreign governments cooperate, the European Union could consider reducing customs tariffs for such countries, Barrot proposed.

“It is a particularly powerful lever,” he said.

French authorities are seeking to tighten immigration policies and border controls, in a move emblematic of the right-ward shift in French politics.

“If we want our migration policy to be as effective as possible, there are many things that will be much more effective if we do it at a European level,” he said.

Prime Minister François Bayrou was set later Wednesday to chair a meeting on immigration controls, which will study 19 countries “where we have the most difficulty in returning people without papers", Barrot said on Europe-1 radio..

Bayrou has called for a national debate on immigration and what it means to be French, suggesting that immigrants were “flooding” France.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)