Nearly a third of Africans applying for a visa to Europe’s Schengen area are rejected — the highest refusal rate of any region, according to a new report by migration consultancy firm Henley & Partners. That’s despite the continent submitting the lowest number of applications per capita.
Africa’s applicants had a 30% visa refusal rate. “The rejection rates for African applicants for Schengen visas are generally 10% higher than the global average, three times higher than the highest rejection rate,” Mehari Taddele Maru, professor at the European University Institute, observed in the report.
Algeria saw the highest rate of refusals, with 46% of its more than 390,000 Schengen visa applications in 2022 rejected. Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, Senegal and Mali all had between 40% and 45% of applications denied.
European states primarily cited “reasonable doubts about the visa applicants’ intention to return home” in their rejections, the report found. The researchers argued the European visa system “clearly demonstrates apparent bias against African applicants,” despite justifications based on security or economic concerns.
The researchers said that with limited visa-free access to wealthy countries and high visa refusal rates, Africans were locked out of numerous opportunities as their ability to engage in multinational trade, network, and explore international business ventures is severely limited.
“Consequently, African entrepreneurs and investors are often left out of lucrative global markets, impeding their potential for economic growth and financial prosperity,” the report notes.
Researchers said visa rejection was also being used as a condition for the return and readmission of illegal migrants in Europe, impacting African countries whose citizens are found to be illegally residing on the continent and those with the lowest rate of return and readmission.
