France threatens to review longstanding migration pact with Algeria over deportations row

In an escalation in tensions between Paris and Algiers, France on Wednesday threatened to cancel a longstanding migration agreement with Algeria if the former French colony continued to refuse to take back deportees.  It comes after a deadly knife attack over the weekend in which an Algerian citizen whom France had tried to unsuccessfully repatriate killed one person and injured three more in the city of Mulhouse. According to the French PM Francois Bayrou, speaking in a press conference, said "the drama in Mulhouse was possible because this Algerian citizen was under orders to leave the country and was presented for repatriation 14 times... and each time refused."The French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has repeatedly called for the 1968 accord on the freedom of movement, which gives Algerian citizens certain exceptions from France immigration law, to be reviewed. 

It comes a day after French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot announced new sanctions against Algeria during an interview with broadcaster BFMTV.

Barrot said that he had taken “measures to restrict movement and access to national territory for certain Algerian dignitaries.”  Algeria described the new French sanctions on the North African country as the latest in “a long series of threats and harassment” and called the move another act of “provocation.”