In his general policy statement before the National Assembly this Friday, Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko affirmed his government’s desire to establish a policy of “reciprocity” towards countries imposing visas on Senegalese citizens. A look back at a sovereignist measure frequently mentioned in Senegal.
Ousmane Sonko took a position on an increasingly central issue in international relations: visa reciprocity. Addressing parliamentarians this Friday, as part of his general policy declaration, he outlined the major current and future national projects. Among these, he insisted on the establishment of reciprocity measures towards countries which impose visas on Senegalese.
He underlined the need for Senegal to better regulate migratory flows while guaranteeing fair treatment of Senegalese citizens abroad.
The modalities envisaged
“We must apply reciprocity,” he said, without naming specific countries, although indicating that the government will now monitor the movement of people at the borders more closely.
“The abolition of paid biometric visas has come into force, but the legislative and regulatory texts governing them have not been repealed. Taking into account past experience, it will be essential to analyze the flaws before any decision,” he said.
He also said: “We will initiate discussions with category A and B countries to demand free visas for their nationals, within the framework of this reciprocity, and to deal with procedures detrimental to our compatriots (authenticity checks , pricing, etc.).”
Towards a visa requirement for certain countries?
Could countries like France, the United States, and more than thirty others soon be subject to visa requirements to enter Senegal? For the moment, no official decision has been made. However, this announcement echoes recent statements by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yacine Fall, who, last September, mentioned the study of such a reciprocity policy.
“We are currently examining the law on visa reciprocity with certain countries,” assured the minister during the examination of the bill authorizing the President of the Republic to ratify the African Union Convention on Cross-Border Cooperation (Convention of Niamey), adopted in Malabo on June 27, 2014. The stated objective is to impose a visa, or visa fees, on nationals of countries imposing visas on Senegalese.
Non-ECOWAS countries exempt from visas
This decision comes against a backdrop where many countries, such as Namibia recently, are seeking to balance their diplomatic relations by adopting similar measures.
Senegal currently grants visa exemption to nationals of many countries, including those that require a visa for Senegalese citizens. According to the specialized site visasnews.com, this exemption concerns in particular all European countries, as well as Brazil, Canada, China, Congo, South Korea, Djibouti, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Mauritius, India and Japan.
These nations could thus be directly impacted by a possible reintroduction of the visa requirement to enter Senegal.
A return to a measure already considered
This is not the first time that such an initiative has been mentioned in Senegal. A year after coming to power, Macky Sall’s government implemented this controversial measure. However, it was abandoned on May 1, 2013, after an assessment of economic losses and under pressure from the tourism sector.
At the time, this measure applied exclusively to nationals of countries located outside the ECOWAS and UEMOA zones, in accordance with the principles of free movement established within these communities.
In particular, it imposed visas on French, Belgian, American citizens and other nationalities.
October 2019, the Senegalese authorities announced the return of the measure “For security reasons, we need to control who enters and leaves the country”, detailed Aly Ngouille Ndiaye, then Minister of the Interior, who had stressed the need for Senegal to better protect its borders.
“We are going to reintroduce the visa so that anyone entering the territory can be identified,” he added, also referring to a “very advanced file”, which could be implemented from “the end of 2019”.
It would only concern citizens residing outside the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), subject to the free movement of goods and people. .
Today, the debate is relaunched, and the government seems ready to reintroduce this policy, but with more precaution and particular attention to its economic and diplomatic impacts.
