The “discriminatory” criteria and “humiliating treatment” for Moroccan visa applicants from European nations have been criticized by ten Moroccan groups. They specifically criticize France in an open letter in which they criticize the European Union’s visa regulations.

Ten organizations, including the National Forum for Youth and Democracy (INJD), a grouping of 16 young Moroccans from various political parties, the Prometheus Institute for Democracy and Human Rights, the Moroccan League for the Defense of Human Rights (LMDH), and the Moroccan Forum of Young Journalists (FMJJ), have urged European nations to review their visa policies.

The groups claim that “the freedom to free movement is taken hostage” and point out that actions like France’s decision to cut the number of Moroccan visas it issues by 50% are “a regressive retaliatory measure” and a “unacceptable consequence.”

The European representations in Morocco are the target of a number of criticisms, including “procedural inflation and the multiplication of categories and subcategories organized in cases, which burdens visa application procedures by making them more out-of-date, opaque, and susceptible to the scam of the services interposed for the processing of applications.”

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The associations explain that, despite assurances to the contrary, “instruction deadlines that remain extremely variable” and the “imterminable” waiting times still exist. They also criticize “the use of private operators who replace the French administration, which are not paid by the French State but by the applicants themselves,” as well as their disapproval of the idea that the costs of rejected files (with the exception of those that lack required documents) be covered by the applicants themselves.

The letter from the groups concludes by stating that, among the objections still being heard, “the outsourcing of the processing of visa applicants files does not adequately guarantee the confidentiality and security of personal data and in particular biometric identifiers.”

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The German Embassy in Morocco has stopped issuing Schengen visas, according to what has been announced on its official website.

The embassy stated in a brief announcement that “due to the epidemiological situation in Morocco, we would like to inform you that Schengen visa applications cannot be submitted until further notice.”

Observers see that the decision is not linked only to the stable epidemiological situation in Morocco, but to the recent Moroccan decision to suspend relations with the German embassy in Rabat and German donor organizations, “due to deep misunderstandings regarding fundamental matters.”

For its part, the German Federal Foreign Office (AA) confirmed that Morocco’s decision is still unclear, as reported by German NTV news channel.

The AA confirmed that it was informed of media reports received from Morocco, explaining that “the German government does not see any reason hindering good diplomatic relations with Morocco, so the Minister of State at the German Federal Foreign Office called the Moroccan ambassador in Berlin today to hold an urgent discussion and explain what happened.”

The German channel said that “despite the Foreign Office’s classification of Germany’s relationship with Morocco as traditional, friendly and problems-free, there are problems that have been lingering on the surface for some time.”

NTV also pointed out that “there are currently many points of contention between Morocco and Germany. The most important of these may be Germany’s criticism of the United States’ unilateral recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over Sahara, which angered Morocco.”

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