It's time to talk about weaponising visas against Africans
Moreover, most Africans are charged exorbitant non-refundable fees when applying for visas. Millions in foreign and local currencies are accumulated by European and US embassies in various African countries from visa applications annually. African visa applicants face more severe restrictions compared with applicants from other regions, resulting in a disproportionately high rejection rate.
In 2022, Africa topped the list of rejections with 30% or one in three of all processed applications being turned down, even though it had the lowest number of visa applications per capita.
Africa accounted for seven of the top 10 countries with the highest Schengen visa rejection rates in 2022: Algeria (45.8%), Guinea-Bissau (45.2%), Nigeria (45.1%), Ghana (43.6%), Senegal (41.6%), Guinea (40.6%) and Mali (39.9%). The situation has become worse over the years as economic instability and conflicts continue to rage in most African countries.
Some African countries have started calling for visa reciprocity against travellers from Europe and the US. The US and most European countries do not require visas to enter African countries.
According to Justice Malala, a South African political analyst, in May, Namibia unveiled measures to impose entry visa requirements to more than 30 countries that have not reciprocated its open visa regime. Nigeria has threatened to impose the same measures. In the run-up to the French election earlier in July, a Chadian official told France's
Le Monde
newspaper that if incoming leaders block visas for Chadians, 'we will apply reciprocity'.
Zambia's President Hakainde Hichilema recently raised the issue of non-refundable visa fees in his country, demanding the rules on non-refundable fees be re-examined and the visa application fees be refunded to Zambians whose applications are rejected. If his demand is accepted, this must apply to all African countries.
According to European states, most rejections are based on 'reasonable doubts about the visa applicants' intention to return home'. Many Africans believe otherwise.
They claim that African visa rejections are weaponised against Africans to deprive them of voices at critical political and socio-economic gatherings on global matters such as climate change, artificial intelligence, human trafficking in Europe and the US. These discussions eventually become policies that affect Africa.
An increased number of leading Africans on these subjects continue to have their applications rejected. These do not sound like people who present 'reasonable doubts about the visa applicants' intentions to return home'.
African News reports that African governments are building partnerships with Europe across sectors, trade, education, and technology. But the barriers to movement stand in stark contrast to the rhetoric of cooperation.
The rise of right-wing politics in many parts of the world has also further complicated matters for African visa applicants. Pressure from far-right parties who are in power in half a dozen member states in Europe are outdoing each other in introducing tough anti-immigration measures.
US President Donald Trump has just imposed travel bans on 12 countries, of which seven are African — Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, Somalia and Sudan. Travel restrictions will be imposed on people from Burundi, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
Even before this measure, Trump's anti-migration political campaign and his subsequent extra-judicial expulsion of immigrants without due process now that he is in power has emboldened right-wing anti-migration politics throughout the world.
The victory on Monday of the nationalist historian Karol Nawrocki in Poland's presidential election is one case in point. Nawrocki is an admirer of Trump who support by calling for tighter immigration controls and championing conservative social values in the EU.
The BBC reports that Trump's administration can temporarily revoke the legal status of more than 500,000 migrants living in the US, the US Supreme Court ruled recently.
The ruling puts on hold a previous federal judge's order stopping the administration from ending the 'parole' immigration programme, established by former president Joe Biden. The programme protected immigrants fleeing economic and political turmoil in their home countries. The new order puts roughly 530,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela at risk of being deported.
It is not just the rejection of visa applications that is troubling; the non-refundable visa application fees continue to negatively affect applicants' financial status. According to the London-based research and arts organisation LAGO Collective, African countries have lost an estimated $67.5 million in non-refundable Schengen visa application fees since 2024.
Africans find themselves going against the tide in a globalised world where mobility equates to opportunity. They are finding themselves locked out 'not because they lack intention or preparation, but because the system increasingly seems stacked against them'.
This matter deserves a wider discussion, preferably at the African Union.
The visa rejections of Africans are not only about Africans overstaying their allowed time in Europe and the US. It is about Europe and the US continuing with business as usual, particularly at multilateral level, where binding discussions without the involvement of Africans are taken. This is particularly the case regarding rare earth minerals and other metals essential to new technologies.
Thembisa Fakude is a senior research fellow at Africa Asia Dialogues and a director at the Mail & Guardian.
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