African nations of Mauritius, Rwanda and recently Benin are the leading examples of visa-free countries for Africans; Ghana from July introduced a visa-on-arrival policy for citizens of African Union member states reports the East African.
However s national sovereignty, irregular immigration flows, xenophobia, terrorism and refugees among other reasons still make African countries hesitant to adopt a visa-free Africa or even adopt the African Union passport.
“The best reason put forward for this (lack of Visa free travel for Africans) has been the economic burden (of having immigrants), security threats and sovereignty issues. We have seen the likes of Kenya, Equatorial Guinea and South Africa use this to justify why some nationals have to obtain visas,” said Cristiano D’Orsi, a lecturer in international legal protection for asylum-seekers at the University of Pretoria
Countries such as Egypt require all African citizens to have a pre-arrival visa to Egypt irrespective of nationality, age or purpose of travel, so as to guard its national sovereignty. Other Countries such as Kenya and South Africa ask for Visas from most nationals from West and Central African countries like Nigeria, Cameroon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo to guard against economic crime, human and drug trafficking.
According to the African Development Bank’s Africa Visa Openness Report 2016 in less than two years to the deadline set for all African countries to introduce an African passport, e-passports and abolishing visa requirements for all African citizens in all African countries by 2018 by the African Union, only 13 out of the 55 African countries offer free access to African nationals, with 55 per cent of Africans still needing a visa to visit African countries.
The report says that 75 per cent of countries in the top 20 most visa-open countries are either in West Africa or East Africa, and only one is in North Africa. None are in Central Africa.
“If Africans have alternatives within the continent, then we will not be seeing these precarious journeys immigrants are making out of the continent,” The commissioner for social affairs at the African Union Commission, Dr Mustapha Sidiki Kaloko said, adding that Rwanda and Mauritius have registered economic benefits by allowing Africans without visas into their country.
According to the East African, African Development Bank president Akinwumi Adesina said that African countries have the power to fast-track connectivity, attract investment and talent into a greater number of countries, promote business opportunities across borders and expand horizons for the continent’s young people.
