Algeria flies nationals from Turkey amid worries over jihadists

TUNIS - Algeria began a three-day airlift April 3 to bring home about 1,800 Algerians stranded in Turkey amid the coronavirus emergency that halted flights between the two countries, said its Interior Ministry whose forces, along with the army, are on alert for jihadist infiltration from Libya and the neighbouring Sahel African region.

“No Algerian will be abandoned abroad,” President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said a day before the launch of the mass airlift.

“The airlift of the 1.788 Algerians blocked in Turkey will last three days. It is provided by Air Algérie and Turkish Airways airlines,” the Algerian ministry added in a statement.

Algeria has closed its land and maritime borders as well as its airspace to travellers as part of emergency measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus that caused the death of 83 people and infected 986 others as of April 2, according to the Algerian Health Ministry.

Algeria had repatriated some 8,000 Algerians on special flights from several countries across the world, mostly from Europe and Morocco, under a plan approved by Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad and managed by the Transport Ministry.

But the airlift of Algerians from Turkey is being supervised by the Interior Ministry as the Algerian authorities worry that jihadists from conflict zones in Syria and Iraq via Turkey could be infiltrating the ranks of Algerians seeking the government’s help to return home from Turkey.

Algeria has the lowest per capita rate in the Maghreb of nationals joining jihadist ranks in Syria and Iraq. An estimated 400 Algerians are believed to have joined jihadists abroad.

Algeria’s leaders fear infiltration of jihadists from across the borders, including Syrian fighters.

Security authorities in 2017 barred Syrians from entering the country among clandestine migrants from Sahel areas citing security concerns.

Algeria is wary of the movement of people between Algeria and Turkey because of Ankara’s involvement in the war in Syria alongside jihadists and other Islamic militant groups.

Algeria rejected a proposal by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during a recent visit to Algiers, that business people from both countries enjoy visa-free trips over security concerns, despite Algiers's eagerness to attract foreign investment.

Turkey’s military involvement in neighbouring Libya with the dispatching of militants and mercenaries from the Syrian war is making security services in the Maghreb more alert to suspicious travel movement from Turkey to the Maghreb.

Algeria opposes Turkey’s role in Syria’s war and is pushing back against its intervention in Libya where Algeria seeks to bring rival sides of the conflict to negotiations, while Ankara sides with the Islamists battling the Libyan National Army.

Tebboune raised Algeria’s security concerns when he addressed the issue of the latest batches of Algerians grounded in Turkey.

“We will not authorise the entry of any one of the Algerians blocked in Turkey before we check their background and identity one by one,” said Tebboune during a televised interview April 2.

He expressed his “surprise about the sudden rise of the number of Algerians stranded from 250 to 1,850” after Algeria airlifted 1,800 Algerians from Turkey on March 20.

“Where were these persons? From where do they come? Some of them have no passports, no identity cards and not even old plane tickets,” he said.

However, he vowed that “no Algerian will be left stranded abroad.”

The returnees will be sheltered for a 14-day quarantine period at hotels and tourism complexes in Algiers and the nearby Boumerdes region, the Interior Ministry said.

Lamine Ghanmi is a veteran Reuters journalist. He has covered North Africa for decades and is based in Tunis.

This article was originally published in The Arab Weekly.