French authorities are attempting to deport multiple Algerian Tiktokers after they were identified online making explicit terrorist threats. But Algeria, as expected, is refusing to accept them. The French and Algerian authorities are therefore at loggerheads. The government wants to take this opportunity to reset relations with Algeria, which has been accused of blackmailing France for decades.
The first of them, known as Zaza Youcef and based in Brittany, has been remanded in custody. A second man, nicknamed Imadtintin, who lives near Grenoble and had shown support for Youcef, was also taken into custody. Both men had already been issued with an OQTF (obligation to leave French territory), which had not been enforced.
The fate of these men, who are clearly dangerous and in breach of French law, is anything but simple, and a thousand administrative obstacles have been put in place to make their deportation impossible. In Imadtintin’s case, he arrived in France in December 2021 as the “spouse of a French national.” The Algerian has been subject to an OQTF order since May 2023. Three requests for a consular pass were sent to Algeria with a view to his expulsion, without success. The OQTF remains valid, but he has since fathered a French child, making his deportation virtually impossible.
A third man guilty of the same offences—broadcasting videos calling for violence—was identified by whistleblower Chawki Benzehra and reported to the French police. He goes by the name of Doualemn and has 138,000 subscribers on TikTok. Already known to the police and convicted of several offences, he was deported by France and flown to Algeria, but on Thursday, January 9th was refused entry by the Algerian authorities. Indeed, Algiers has banned him from entry as he is likely to represent a terrorist threat. “We do not know whether this ban was issued in the hour before the plane landed, or even whether it was actually issued by the Algerian authorities,” the interior ministry told Le Figaro. As a result, the French authorities were forced to fly him back to France, as international law prevents an individual from being allowed to stay on the airport tarmac if the country’s authorities refuse to let him in.
Faced with the incident, officials in Paris have adopted a harsher tone. Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said that by sending Doualemn back, “Algeria is seeking to humiliate France,” and is trampling on the 1948 Chicago Convention, which stipulates that each country is ultimately responsible for its own nationals. The man, who holds Algerian nationality, did not need a consular pass and should have been accepted by his country of origin without discussion.
Back in France, Doualemn can count on a well-honed defence: “He is a father, a grandfather, and above all someone to whom France gave a chance and who seized that chance,” says his lawyer, Emilie Brum.
The Tiktokers’ crisis has brought the issue of diplomatic relations between France and Algeria back to the fore. These relations have been in a very poor state for several years, preventing any firm policy on the part of the French government, since deportations of offenders to Algeria are almost systematically circumvented. Gérald Darmanin, the current minister of justice and former minister of the interior, wants to get things moving and put pressure on the Algerian government. On Sunday, January 12th, he spoke out in favour of terminating the 2013 Franco-Algerian intergovernmental agreement, which allows thousands of people holding Algerian diplomatic passports to travel to France without a visa and to move around freely.
In addition to this specific measure, other political figures are calling for a broader review of the rules governing travel between France and Algeria. Former prime minister Gabriel Attal, who is aligned with President Emmanuel Macron, and the Rassemblement National (RN) party leader Marine Le Pen are both calling for the revocation of the 1968 agreement. This agreement, established after the Algerian war, grants Algerian nationals a whole range of privileges for travelling to France, including access to social benefits typically reserved for French nationals. In an interview with Le Figaro, Gabriel Attal said: “Faced with the Algerian regime, the time for firmness has come.” This message of firmness, long advocated by the RN, is now being taken up by the Establishment Right and the Centre.
Since the beginning of January, new profiles of dangerous influencers have been identified almost every day. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has spoken of the existence of “a whole arsenal of diplomatic responses” to Algerian provocations. Will the French government finally decide to use it?
