[Kenya] Scrapping visas for African nationals furthers push for a borderless continent

By the end of the year Kenya will scrap visas for all African nationals in a move intended to open up trade and travel on the continent, The Week reports.

Speaking at a climate change conference in Congo-Brazzaville, Kenyan President William Ruto said the removal of barriers was needed to realise the dream of a continental free trade agreement. He said, "It is time we…realise that having visa restrictions among ourselves is working against us".

Kenya now joins The Gambia, Benin and Seychelles as the only countries to offer unrestricted travel on the continent and uphold the long-held vision of a borderless Africa.

How a borderless Africa would work

According to reporting from The Guardian, "Costly and time-consuming" visa requirements – 32 out of 54 African countries still require the nationals of at least half the continent's countries to obtain a visa – combined with high airfares, have "long created barriers to inter-African travel for African passport holders."

To address this, the African Union (AU) has aggressively "pursued the goal of facilitating visa-free travel within the continent", Africa News said. There have been bilateral and regional agreements, however, progress towards completely unrestricted travel has reportedly been "slow".

In 2018 the AU assembly adopted the Protocol to the Treaty, establishing the African Economic Community relating to the free movement of people and rights of residence and establishment. At the time it was hailed as a landmark document but five years later little over half the countries in Africa have signed it. Only four - Rwanda, Niger, São Tomé and Principe and Mali – have ratified it.

This demonstrates that the "political determination to fulfil the widely shared aspiration for a borderless Africa is still inadequate", Al Jazeera columnist Tafi Mhaka said.

The obstacles

Leaders’ primary fear is that implementation of the protocol would "trigger political instability", Alan Hirsch - Professor at The Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town - stated in The Conversation. 

Several of Africa's richer countries reportedly seem concerned that free movement could lead to the "sudden influx of low-skilled economic migrants from poorer countries".

In West Africa, "where borders are porous, easy movement through states has contributed to the crossing of borders in the region by terrorists such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State", The Republic said.

In the post-colonial era, African states have "had to consider the myriad of challenges including terrorism, economic meltdown, poverty and unemployment", according to The Republic. These pose a "unique challenge to states who must choose whether to shed their ability to control and dictate the internal affairs of their countries or abide by ideology and international agreements".

Moving forward

Regional blocs - most notably the East African Community (EAC) and the Economic Community of Western African States (ECOWAS) - have reportedly taken huge steps forward in lifting restrictions on cross-border movement. In some cases, they even reportedly allow passport-free cross-border travel within their respective regions.

Writing for the Global Government Forum, Professor Hirsch said one possibility would be to try to follow the "European model". Europe is "unique in achieving internal freedom of movement, residence, and establishment for all citizens of EU countries", he stated, but this was achieved over 40 or so years, meaning that the road to free movement "would be long".

Another example would be South America where, the professor said, "there was the attention given to common documentation, border management systems and bureaucratic procedures, even before there was significant border opening". Only after this were systems developed "to facilitate business travel and the mobility of skilled people". Then "when the decision was made to liberalise further in the 2000s, reliable systems and practices were already in place".

A more radical solution has been an African Union passport. The idea was first proposed a quarter of a century ago and an "AU passport" was launched in 2016 to allow unrestricted travel for Africans within the continent.

However, according to The Guardian, concerns about security, smuggling and the impact on the local employment markets meant the "roll-out has been limited and the passports are mainly used by diplomats and high-ranking officials".

Source: The Week

(Links and quotes via original reporting)

By the end of the year Kenya will scrap visas for all African nationals in a move intended to open up trade and travel on the continent, The Week reports.

Speaking at a climate change conference in Congo-Brazzaville, Kenyan President William Ruto said the removal of barriers was needed to realise the dream of a continental free trade agreement. He said, "It is time we…realise that having visa restrictions among ourselves is working against us".

Kenya now joins The Gambia, Benin and Seychelles as the only countries to offer unrestricted travel on the continent and uphold the long-held vision of a borderless Africa.

How a borderless Africa would work

According to reporting from The Guardian, "Costly and time-consuming" visa requirements – 32 out of 54 African countries still require the nationals of at least half the continent's countries to obtain a visa – combined with high airfares, have "long created barriers to inter-African travel for African passport holders."

To address this, the African Union (AU) has aggressively "pursued the goal of facilitating visa-free travel within the continent", Africa News said. There have been bilateral and regional agreements, however, progress towards completely unrestricted travel has reportedly been "slow".

In 2018 the AU assembly adopted the Protocol to the Treaty, establishing the African Economic Community relating to the free movement of people and rights of residence and establishment. At the time it was hailed as a landmark document but five years later little over half the countries in Africa have signed it. Only four - Rwanda, Niger, São Tomé and Principe and Mali – have ratified it.

This demonstrates that the "political determination to fulfil the widely shared aspiration for a borderless Africa is still inadequate", Al Jazeera columnist Tafi Mhaka said.

The obstacles

Leaders’ primary fear is that implementation of the protocol would "trigger political instability", Alan Hirsch - Professor at The Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town - stated in The Conversation. 

Several of Africa's richer countries reportedly seem concerned that free movement could lead to the "sudden influx of low-skilled economic migrants from poorer countries".

In West Africa, "where borders are porous, easy movement through states has contributed to the crossing of borders in the region by terrorists such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State", The Republic said.

In the post-colonial era, African states have "had to consider the myriad of challenges including terrorism, economic meltdown, poverty and unemployment", according to The Republic. These pose a "unique challenge to states who must choose whether to shed their ability to control and dictate the internal affairs of their countries or abide by ideology and international agreements".

Moving forward

Regional blocs - most notably the East African Community (EAC) and the Economic Community of Western African States (ECOWAS) - have reportedly taken huge steps forward in lifting restrictions on cross-border movement. In some cases, they even reportedly allow passport-free cross-border travel within their respective regions.

Writing for the Global Government Forum, Professor Hirsch said one possibility would be to try to follow the "European model". Europe is "unique in achieving internal freedom of movement, residence, and establishment for all citizens of EU countries", he stated, but this was achieved over 40 or so years, meaning that the road to free movement "would be long".

Another example would be South America where, the professor said, "there was the attention given to common documentation, border management systems and bureaucratic procedures, even before there was significant border opening". Only after this were systems developed "to facilitate business travel and the mobility of skilled people". Then "when the decision was made to liberalise further in the 2000s, reliable systems and practices were already in place".

A more radical solution has been an African Union passport. The idea was first proposed a quarter of a century ago and an "AU passport" was launched in 2016 to allow unrestricted travel for Africans within the continent.

However, according to The Guardian, concerns about security, smuggling and the impact on the local employment markets meant the "roll-out has been limited and the passports are mainly used by diplomats and high-ranking officials".

Source: The Week

(Links and quotes via original reporting)