'Humiliating': North Africans complain of Schengen visa red tape restricting travel

'We are being treated as potential illegal migrants', says Algerian who struggled to obtain Schengen visa

The Tunisian village of Sidi Bou Said looks over the Mediterranean. EPA / Mohamed Messara

A number of North African citizens have complained their desire to visit Europe is being thwarted by strict visa regulations.

Throughout last year, 45 per cent of Algerians’ visa applications for the Schengen – an area comprising 27 European countries – were rejected.

Slightly more than 21 per cent of Moroccan applications and 15.5 per cent of those from Tunisia were turned down in the same period.

In recent years, travelling to the EU, especially France, has become nearly impossible for Tunisians, Algerians and Moroccans, many have said.

The application process can take more than six months; from scheduling an appointment and submitting the forms, to waiting for a review and receiving an answer.

In September 2021, France reduced the quota for visas granted to Algerians and Moroccans to 50 per cent and for Tunisian nationals to 30 per cent.

“It is true that treatment has been always humiliating and exploitative but with this quota, it became obvious that more people got affected, even those who got accepted in prestigious universities,” sociologist and visa system researcher Ahmed Jemaa told The National.

Despite the right to freedom of movement guaranteed by the Universal Declaration for Human Rights, many feel they are deprived due to their nationality.

“We are being treated as potential illegal migrants and it is very humiliating,” Algerian student Ichrak, 26, told The National.

Earlier this year, she received a one-month internship offer at a prestigious Parisian university – an opportunity she had been dreaming of. But her Algerian passport meant she had to overcome a set of additional challenges to obtain her visa.

Although the Schengen agreement of 1985 made movement between signatory states easier, its creation has become a burden for those who wish to enter from beyond its borders, they say.

Rejection with a high cost?

Ichrak lives in Jijel province, in north-eastern Algeria. She had to travel 250km to Annaba province for her visa appointment.

“I had everything to justify my visit but they still requested extra documents every time,” Ichrak said.

“It costs an arm and a leg already just to be able to go there”.

She spent almost quarter of her internship stipend on her visa application, she said.

Ichrak had to travel numerous times from her hometown to Annaba. The total cost was €250 ($278), which when converted to Algerian currency tends to be considered a huge amount of money that few people in the country can afford.

TLS Contact is the main private operator that manages EU visas and consular services.

Thousands of applicants remain on the waiting list, the TSL told Ichrak. The priority criteria for visa appointments remain unclear for most applicants to whom The National spoke.

Observers argue that the constant increase in Schengen visa fees means that profit has notably become a motive. As a result, it is becoming harder for low-income people to obtain a visa to travel to Europe.

“They do not accept mail deliveries so you need to hand in your application yourself,” Ichrak explained. “The last time I had to travel back to Annada, it was snowing and roads were blocked.”

She said she had a friend there who handed the form in on her behalf.

To book an appointment with TLS Contact, Ichrak had to pay another agency for her application to be processed by TLS, as increased demands make it virtually impossible to secure one.

Ichrak eventually received approval and was able to travel for her internship, but it was a case of once bitten, twice shy.

“I was able to go after a few more hurdles and barely managed to receive my visa prior to my deadline, but this experience made me refuse another internship opportunity just to avoid going through the same visa trouble again,” she said.

Some of her colleagues opted for the “visibly more rational decision” of internships in Turkey, Egypt and the UAE to avoid the process, she added.

“Europe rejects us because there are already lots of us there undocumented but despite that the process needs more transparency.”

Unlike Ichrak, Haythem, a Tunisian student, and his wife were denied a visa to finish their studies in France.

Even though they are highly skilled cardiologists and neurologists, their applications were rejected, despite a comfortable income of €46.000 a year.

“I was pursuing a PhD in double supervision between Canada and France. I was rejected while moving from Canada to Paris to continue the French part of my PhD,” Haythem told The National.

He said his wife “obtained a competitive scholarship for an international collaborative research initiative”.

“We were both certified to practise our medical specialities in France since we both succeeded in a competitive examination accepting only a minority of foreign medical graduates,” he added.

According to a 2020 study conducted by the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Right, the assessment of the social and professional situation of visa applicants has a discriminatory effect on the unemployed and people on low income who are unlikely to be able to provide some of the required documents to obtain an EU visa.

To be considered for a Schengen visa, applicants are expected to submit bank statements, proof of employment, insurance and other documents.

“The Schengen visa has become a tool to restrict rather than manage migration towards the EU,” the study says.

However, in recent years, those whose countries of origin are labelled a “migration risk” started receiving more rejections than in the past, which means the visa rejection pattern has now changed to include highly skilled workers.

“The injustice we see in mobility is a reflection of injustice in political and economic relations as well as colonial history,” Mr Jemaa said.

“The dominant narrative of the EU is stopping irregular migration versus providing facilitation for regular migration, however, on the ground what we see in the Schengen visa system is the complete opposite of these claims.”

To deal with the increasing demand, Schengen countries have been opting for the use of private operators, such as TLS Contact and VFS Global, since the start of the 2000s.

These firms charge a separate fee, which in turn adds to the cost of an already expensive application.

The use of these private companies – fully mandated to manage EU visa application – has also made it harder for applicants to have direct contact with consular officials to follow up and inquire in case of visa rejection.

The TLS has not responded to multiple requests for comment.