Brussels – “Why don’t they just take a plane?” This is probably one of the most common questions when discussing a complex topic like migration to the European Union. However, there is always an elephant in the room, which no one seems willing to address – the complexity and biased rules of EU visa policy.
The EU visa policy is linked to the rules of the Schengen Area – the area without internal border controls and with harmonised controls at the external borders. The Schengen Area is composed of 25 EU member states – all except Cyprus and Ireland, which are granted full access but cannot issue Schengen visas – plus four non-EU countries: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.
The EU’s outermost territories are not formally part of the Schengen Area, but they can be associated with their respective EU member states. These include French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion, Mayotte, Saint Martin, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna, the French Southern and Antarctic Lands, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba.
Citizens of any other state in the world must apply for a visa, unless their respective country has been granted a visa-free regime for short stays, meaning up to 90 days within any 180-day period. Based on a case-by-case assessment, the European Commission may propose to the co-legislators of the Parliament and Council a decision on visa liberalisation, with the assessment based on a set of pre-established criteria: irregular migration, public order and security, economic benefits, human rights, fundamental freedoms, implications for regional coherence, and reciprocity.
To date, 64 countries and territorial authorities have been granted a visa-free regime: Albania, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, East Timor, El Salvador, Georgia, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Kiribati, Kosovo, Macao, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Nauru, New Zealand, Nicaragua, North Macedonia, Holy See, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Taiwan, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela.
No country in Africa and only a few in Asia are on this list of “first-class” Schengen partners, while agreements with Belarus, Russia, and Vanuatu have been partially or fully suspended.
This means that citizens from all the other 97 countries from around the world must apply for a visa if they wish to enter the Schengen Area, even for a short stay. Granting a visa is the responsibility of each Schengen member state, which complicates matters when third-country nationals apply to enter the border-free area, leading to delays, restrictions, and rejections that prevent predictable and fair access to Europe.
Not to forget that nationals from 12 countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, and Sri Lanka – face further restrictions. If they travel to another non-Schengen country and have to change planes in a Schengen country, even without leaving the airport’s international transit zone, they require a special visa in advance, called the Airport Transit Visa (ATV).
For example, a Nigerian traveller flying from Abuja to London, with a connection in Paris, could be refused boarding by the airline if not in possession of an Airport Transit Visa, even though they do not plan to leave the airport in France. In this way, Schengen countries extend their border management not only to those who intend to enter the territory fully, but also to travellers who briefly pass through their international transit areas, adding a further layer of complexity for certain nationalities.
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