by: Andrea Spinelli Barrile | April 29, 2024
Almost a third of people of African origin, with citizenship and passport of an African country, who apply for a visa for the European Schengen area are rejected. We learn this from a report by the consultancy firm Henley&Partners, according to which the highest refusal rate of European visas is towards Africa. At a per capita level, people of African origin are the least likely to apply for legal visas to Europe globally.
African applicants had a visa refusal rate of 30%, and “refusal rates of African Schengen visa applicants are generally 10% higher than the global average,” notes Mehari Taddele Maru, a professor at the University Institute, in the report. European. Algeria had the highest rejection rate, with 46% of more than 390,000 Schengen visa applications in 2022 rejected. Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, Senegal and Mali recorded between 40% and 45% of applications rejected.
European states mainly cite “reasonable doubts about the intention of visa applicants to return home” to justify the denial and according to researchers the European visa system “clearly demonstrates an apparent bias towards African applicants”, despite the justifications based on security or economic concerns.
© All rights reserved