A report by migration consultancy firm Henley & Partners shows that Nigeria ranks third on the list of countries with the most visa denials by European countries.
The list places Algeria, with 392,053 rejections, as the country with the highest denials.
Africa is the region with the highest rejection rate, with nearly a third of applicants being denied entry into Europe’s Schengen area despite being the continent with the lowest number of applications per capita.
“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.
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.
Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, Senegal, and Mali all had between 40% and 45% of applications denied.
Reacting to the report, some Reddit users attributed the denials to the conduct of some Nigerians abroad.
Strict-Gap9062 said, “It’s all about the scamming.”
Kappa_Keppo said,” Don’t you think there’s a reason for this? Start holding your contry men accountable for their actions and this will start to decrease. There is a post on this subreddit where someone asked if you would still be friends with a scammer/fraudster and nearly all the comments said yes.”
