Visa denial remains an obstacle for researchers from the global south.CREDIT: Maksym Yemelyanov/Alamy Stock Photo
Visa delays and denials are keeping researchers from Africa from participating in conferences and meetings in the global north, including those crucial for Africa’s development. This denies them opportunities for building research partnerships and means Africa’s needs are not represented.
Local Action on Global Opportunities (LAGO), an organization which analyses migration and visa issues, found1 that African nations had higher rates of rejection for Schengen visas in 2022 and 2023 than any other region. Nine out of the 12 countries with 40% or more visa applicants rejected in 2023 are in Africa. Of the 27 countries with rejection rates of 30% or more, 18 are in Africa. And fewer than 10 African countries are included among the 50 who face a rejection rate of less than 10%.
Similarly, the Royal Society2 found that the highest visa refusal rates for UK work visas were skewed towards the global south. “I have no doubt that the biggest bias among global north countries is against applicants from the Africa region,” said Madhukar Pai, Canada Research Chair in Epidemiology and Global Health at McGill University. The result of this, said Pai, is that Africans are least represented in global health organizations, boards, conferences, and publications.
This challenge means that many African researchers are not able to participate in conferences that discuss issues of crucial importance to the continent. African researchers struggled, for instance, to attend the International Aids Society (IAS) 24th International AIDS Conference, held in Canada in 2022 and the subsequent meeting in Germany in 2024 due to visa delays and denials. As AIDS is a priority on Africa’s health agenda, the IAS has called for better access to visas.
Marie-Claire Wangari was a fifth-year medical student at the University of Nairobi in 2017 when her visa to Montenegro was rejected and she couldn’t attend the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations. Six of her colleagues faced similar rejections and they had to miss the four-week gathering where medical students are exposed to global health issues, including research and clinical projects.
“All the students who applied for a visa from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania were rejected,” said Wangari, who is now a global health practitioner and a human rights committee member at the Kenya Medical Association. Applicants who were from Uganda and Tanzania also incurred extra travelling costs as they had to travel to the nearest consulate in Nairobi to apply for the visas. This year all her Kenyan colleagues who applied for the same forum held this August in Finland were also rejected, despite applying six weeks in advance.
While visa denials for Africans are common in the global north, they also happen in Africa. Africa Visa Openness Index3 gave African countries collectively a score of 0.479 out of 1 in how open the countries are to visitors from other African countries. The index measures the ease with which travelers can obtain visas; this may include the availability of e-visas, for instance, or visas given upon arrival.
Last year, many Nigerian scientists, for instance, missed the inaugural conference for the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) held at University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Folusho Balogun, a research fellow at the Institute of Child health at Nigeria’s University of Ibadan and a team of 10 Nigerian scientists missed the two-day event as their visas were not processed in time. Balogun was supposed to present the research project she was leading at the event but received her visa on the day the conference ended.
Barnabas Alayande, a Nigerian surgeon at the University of Global Health Equity, in Rwanda argued that the country of origin of a passport holder is a factor to the “humiliation” that African scientists experience while traveling, even after getting a visa. “My counterparts from the US usually pass through immigration with ease, while I must queue for long hours being questioned before I am allowed to go to my destination. Sometimes, my friends must make noise about it,” said Alayande. Having missed two global health conferences in the United States and Switzerland due to visa denial two years ago, Alayande said the impact can be detrimental to mental health.
Visa-friendly venues
Scientists are increasingly calling for conference organizers to host their meetings in visa-friendly countries. The IAS’s Conference on HIV Science will take place in Kigali, Rwanda next year, while the 26th International AIDS Conference will be hosted in Latin America and the Caribbean. Rwanda ranks first on the Africa Visa Openness Index. The 2025 congress of the International Health Economics Association has been relocated from Canada to Bali, Indonesia due to concerns over restrictive visa policies in Canada that would limit the participation of delegates from the global south.
Pai says that while hosting meetings in more visa-friendly locations may not entirely address the global health imbalance, it is a step toward change. Pai says the growing wave of anti-immigrant and anti-refugee sentiments in North America and Europe will worsen visa inequities in future.
Shashika Bandara, from McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, and colleagues say in a paper4 in PLOS Global Public Health in 2023, that a lack of resources makes it more difficult for early career researchers, faculty and students from Africa to get visas.
Bandara, who is originally from Sri Lanka, is involved in a coalition that is working on visa inequities. He explained that the visa costs provide additional burdens to early career researchers who may not be able to afford it. Visa inequities, he said, are “cutting off expert voices from countries most affected by global health challenges”.
“Global health conferences are where early career researchers meet experts in the field, and get a chance to present their research. Visa denial can slow career progression,” said Shashika. He urges universities and research institutions in the global south to budget for support services, such as visa application and travel related logistics. “We really need to rethink visa inequities. They can make or break global health,” said Alayande.
