On Tuesday 23 July, the European Commission proposed to the EU Council that the visa policy applied to Somalia be tightened in order to encourage cooperation on readmission, according to a press release.
The Commission has already proposed visa measures under Article 25(a) of the Community Code on Visas for Ethiopia, Gambia, Senegal, Bangladesh and Iraq.
“Somalia’s cooperation on the readmission of its nationals who are illegally staying on the territory of the EU Member States remains insufficient, as reported by Member States and substantiated by the low return rate (i.e. the number of returns enforced in comparison with the number of return decisions issued to nationals of the third country, 4% in 2023) and the decreasing issuance rate (i.e. the number of travel documents issued by third countries in comparison to the number of readmission requests submitted by Member States),” explains the Commission in its proposal.
“Almost all Member States face persistent challenges in establishing a meaningful dialogue and engagement with Somalia on readmission, in particular as regards forced returns”. As part of the ongoing assessments carried out by the Commission, on the basis of data and information provided by the Member States, discussions in the EU Council working groups and meetings of the relevant expert groups, as well as by the institutions, bodies, offices and agencies of the Union, “Member States reported a number of issues that hamper the different steps of the readmission process, including related to the identification of Somali nationals, the issuance of emergency travel documents and the organisation of return operations”.
Somalia’s long delays in responding to Member States’ readmission requests, or lack of response, make the identification process very cumbersome, which means that it very rarely results in the issue of travel documents or the organisation of return operations.
On 23 July, the Commission also published its 5th assessment of the cooperation of third countries in the readmission of their nationals residing illegally in the EU, but explained that this report is confidential.
Link to the proposal for Somalia: https://aeur.eu/f/d3l (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)