A recent comment made on Twitter by France's President Emmanuel Macron has angered many Algerians on social media.
During an official visit to Algeria this week, President Macron touched on a topic which is sensitive for many in the country which fought a bitter war of independence against France, reports the BBC.
"Coming to terms with our past means finding a way forward for those who were born in Algeria to be able to return, whatever their background," he wrote in a tweet.
It has been understood as an appeal to the Algerian authorities to allow the return of two groups, known as Harkis and Pieds Noirs.
Harki is the term used to describe to thousands of Algerians who fought for the French army against Algeria during the war of independence from 1954 to 1962.
It has since become pejorative, meaning traitor or collaborator, and the majority fled hostility in Algeria at independence and settled in France with their families.
Some of the older generations have expressed their wish to return to their country of origin and urged successive French governments to lobby Algeria for their return.
Pieds Noirs, meanwhile, are Europeans who lived in Algeria for generations but left the country with the colonial administration.
President Macron had previously called France's colonial war in Algeria "a crime against humanity", but on his first official visit to the country he fell short of making the apology that many had demanded.
Algerians have taken to social media to express their outrage.