BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 8. The French
government is tightening visa rules for foreigners wishing to visit
the French Overseas Territories. Thus, unlike the Schengen visa
regime applied on its territory, France applies more onerous
entry-exit and visa rules to the Overseas Territories.
This was announced in a statement released by the Baku
Initiative Group (BIG).
The statement said that according to French legislation, the
Overseas Territories located outside Europe - Guadeloupe,
Martinique, French Guiana, Reunion, Mayotte, Kanaki (New
Caledonia), Maohi Nui (French Polynesia) and Wallis and Futuna -
are not part of the Schengen zone and possession of a Schengen
visa, as a rule, is not considered valid for entry to these
territories. For this reason, foreigners who require a visa must
obtain a separate visa to visit the Overseas Territories.
By tightening the visa regime in the Overseas Territories,
France is trying to prevent the international exposure of colonial
crimes committed in these territories. By making the access of
peoples living in the colonial territories, local representatives,
members of the media, researchers, human rights defenders, and
other international actors to the Overseas Territories and from
these territories to international platforms dependent on
additional visa and administrative procedures, it makes it
difficult for the world community to communicate information about
its colonial crimes and their continuing consequences to the
present day.
On the one hand, France considers these territories as an
integral part of its state territory, and on the other hand, by
restricting the entry, exit, and movement to these territories
under the guise of a "separate legal framework", it creates
administrative differences between mainland France and the Overseas
Territories.
At the same time, additional visa and entry procedures make it
difficult for tourists, investors, entrepreneurs, researchers, and
other foreign economic and social actors to access the Overseas
Territories, thereby creating obstacles to the expansion of tourism
revenues, investment flows, business relations, and regional
economic cooperation. These restrictions, especially for small and
geographically isolated economies, limit their regional economic
integration by weakening their access to foreign markets. As a
result, the French Overseas Territories located in the Caribbean,
Pacific, and Indian Ocean regions are deprived of the opportunity
to deepen economic and trade relations with their geographical
neighbors, and, instead, their financial, trade, and institutional
dependence on mainland France is further strengthened.
The French government refuses to issue visas to employees of the
Baku Initiative Group and to persons wishing to travel to the
Overseas Territories through it.
