France Tightens Visa Rules For Overseas Territories

(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) 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.

MENAFN08092026000187011040ID1111633592