According to Schengen visa data issued on Saturday, African people who wish to join the European Union will have to pay more as the EU prepares to raise visa costs starting on Tuesday.
According to the report, the European Union received €3.4 million from the rejection of Nigerian individuals’ applications for Schengen visas. It further added that as on Tuesday, African people would have to pay €90 instead of €80 for the application.
The data indicates that 704,000 African citizens had their visa application denied in 2023.
Taking into account that the costs associated with applying for a visa are non-refundable, it was said that €56.3 million was lost.
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According to the report, African citizens have been forced to spend millions of dollars annually as a result of a large proportion of their visa applications being denied; these costs, sometimes known as “reverse remittances,” only benefit the EU member states.
“In 2023, African citizens paid €56.3 million for visa application fees, accounting for 43% of total spending; rejection rates for visa applications in 2023 were particularly high for African and Asian nations, which carry 90% of all costs. Following a recent decision by the EU Commission, the EU will hike adult visa costs from €80 to €90 on June 11; as a result, spending will increase by 12.5% beginning next week.
Algeria accounted for 23.5% of the total money spent on rejected applications in 2023, making it the nation of origin for the most of applications that were denied. Additionally, the nation had the second-highest percentage of applications denied out of all countries, with 289,000 out of 704,000 applications refused, or 42.3% of all requests.
“This nationality group is especially impacted by visa rejections because it has high application rates and they are affected economically when placing visa applications” the report added.
Considering that most African nations have some of the lowest earnings in the world, it went on to explain that Moroccans, who were the top visa applicants from Africa for the year, had the largest number of visas refused. It said that Africans were severely hit by such expenditures.This nationality group’s 437,000 visa applications were turned down in total in 2023—that is, 62% of the total. Moroccans lost €10.9 million in 2023 as a result of their visa applications being denied, according to costs.
The analysis states that 43.1% of all visas denied to Africans in 2023 will be due to application rejections.
According to a recent EU Observer analysis, in 2023, the refusal of Schengen visas will have brought in €130 million.
The study said, “This amount stood at €105m the previous year, showing an upward trend of Schengen visa expenses as well as rejection rates.”
“Visa inequality has very tangible consequences and the world’s poorest pay the price,” stated Marta Foresti, the founder of LAGO Collective. Consider the expenses incurred by denied visas as “reverse remittances,” or money moving from underdeveloped to developed nations. It’s time to stop hearing about these expenses whenever the topic of help or migration comes up.
