France Algerians Protest: Hunger Strike for Reunification
Credit: Coline Bonvalot
As tensions brew between Paris and Algiers, news of the mistreatment of Algerian migrants in France threatens to exacerbate President Macron’s ongoing efforts to reconcile with Algeria.
Ten Algerian migrants in Essonne, a province in Southern France, have initiated a hunger strike on September 4, to protest the local authorities’ failure to process their family reunification applications.
Approximately a hundred migrants in the same province are grappling with significant delays in the processing of their family reunification requests. Some have been waiting in vain for three years, as reported by the French news outlet Actu Essonne on September 1.
One migrant shared with Actu Essonne that his application has been in limbo since 2020, with the Essonne prefecture neither approving nor rejecting his request.
The prolonged waiting period has resulted in issues like divorces and severe depression, while the standard processing time for family reunification requests is typically six months.
“We are living in a perpetual state of anticipation. We receive no response, and our applications’ status remains a mystery. Calls and emails go unanswered. How can this process be so protracted? It’s truly unbearable,” lamented one Algerian migrant in conversation with the French news outlet.
Another demonstration is scheduled for September 5, 2023, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. in front of the prefecture. It is anticipated that around sixty participants will turn up at the rally.
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The Algerians in France, whom are using the hunger method, for protesting against alleged ill treatment against them in France, must be clarified.
“A strike occurs when employees of a company or firm, does so for industrual grievances only.”