News

More Visas for Less African Immigrants: Europe’s Offer to Egypt

More Visas for Less African Immigrants: Europe’s Offer to Egypt

 

Schengen Visa allows entrance to as many as 26 countries in the EU

As part of a plan to restrict migration, the European Union (EU) is offering Egypt a deal: simplified visa procedures and increased economic aid over smoother deportations of unwanted African migrants.

Tunisia is also to be offered the same exchange, two senior officials in Brussels said, according to Reuters. The EU is turning to its neighbors after setting a plan to restrain arrivals from Libya, from which most immigrants depart from late at night, traveling across the Mediterranean Sea with Italy as their central destination. Thousands die along the journey annually.

Officials and diplomats say Cairo has put a high price tag on any new help.

“Egypt has two concerns, socio-economic stability and security. And these are interlinked,” said an EU official who visited Cairo in January for talks on migration, adding: we are working on establishing a dialogue that would look at that, to the benefit of both the migrants there but also Egyptians from the most vulnerable groups,” Reuters reported.

Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry is to travel to Brussels for a foreign ministers’ meeting on March 6. Another EU official said that would be a good moment “for Egypt and the EU to agree that they want to intensify this cooperation”, said Reuters.

The EU had previously approved a 1.8 billion-euro fund to address the “root causes of irregular migration and displaced persons in Africa. More than one million migrants and refugees made the journey to Europe in 2015, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees states.

#StopTheWait: Messi Visits Egypt to Promote Affordable Hepatitis C Treatment and Tourism
Opening Female Gyms in Saudi Arabia: Saudi Women Unhurriedly Acquire Basic Rights

Subscribe to our newsletter


News
@AyaNaderM

Aya Nader is an independent journalist based in Egypt, published in Open Democracy, Daily News Egypt, The National, and Al-Monitor, among others. She is an MA candidate in International Relations at the American University in Cairo.

More in News

Egypt Inaugurates New Village Development Project for Bedouins in South Sinai

Egyptian Streets26 September 2023

Egypt’s Presidential Elections will be Held in December 2023

Farah Rafik25 September 2023

Egypt Delays Onion Export Ban to October

Shereif Barakat24 September 2023

Egyptian University Student Develops ‘Egypt Metro’ App for Seamless Navigation

Farah Rafik23 September 2023

Bridging Egyptian Artists and the World: ‘Forever is Now’ Exhibition Returns at the Pyramids

Egyptian Streets22 September 2023

Egyptian Minister of Environment to Co-Chair COP28 Negotiations on Climate Finance

Muhammed Kotb21 September 2023

Sunken Sanctuary of Aphrodite and Temple of Amun Discovered in Egypt

Shereif Barakat20 September 2023

Egypt’s New Capital Plans to Sell 10% of its Shares

Egyptian Streets19 September 2023