Our response is immediate, firm, and strictly proportional, the senior official told the BFMTV broadcaster, in a step in escalating tensions between the two governments, in one of the worst bilateral crises in the last few years.

Barrot said the repatriation was ordered for agents with a diplomatic passport without an updated visa.

The Algerian Press Service reported over the weekend that the French Charge d’Affaires in Algiers had been informed of the repatriation order of at least 15 French agents, who had allegedly assumed diplomatic or consular duties without complying with the corresponding formalities.

The French Foreign Minister considered the decision incomprehensible and brutal, which Algeria attributed to a lack of respect on the part of France in sending officials outside the procedures in force.

Paris argued to send reinforcement personnel to Algiers to compensate for the expulsion of 12 of its diplomats in April, to which President Emmanuel Macron reacted with a similar measure.

jrr/iff/mem/wmr