At a rally in the run-up to the parliamentary elections, Senegal’s Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko announced yesterday that he wanted to “apply reciprocity” to countries that impose visas on Senegalese citizens, citing France and the United States in particular.
In the run-up to the parliamentary elections scheduled for November 17, Senegal’s Prime Minister, Ousmane Sonko, has taken a stand on an issue that is increasingly affecting international relations: visa reciprocity.
At an end-of-campaign rally held yesterday in Guédiawaye, on the outskirts of Dakar, Ousmane Sonko took advantage of his speech at the Amadou Barry stadium to take stock of the various national projects underway and to come, and showed, among other things, his willingness to implement reciprocity measures vis-à-vis countries that impose visas on Senegalese citizens.
The Prime Minister stressed the need for Senegal to better regulate entry to and exit from its territory, ensuring that Senegalese citizens abroad are treated fairly. “We must apply reciprocity”, he declared, citing France and the United States in particular, and pointing out that the Senegalese government would henceforth be keeping a closer eye on the movement of people across its borders.
France, the US, and more than thirty other countries soon to be subject to visa requirements for travel to Senegal?
This statement echoes recent declarations by Foreign Affairs Minister Yacine Fall, who explained that the government was examining the possibility of implementing such a reciprocity policy. The aim would be to impose a visa, or visa fee, on nationals of countries requiring visas for Senegalese.
This announcement also comes at a time when many countries, most recently Namibia, are seeking to balance their diplomatic relations by taking similar measures.
Senegal currently grants visa-free entry to citizens of the following countries, but these countries impose visas on Senegalese nationals and could therefore be impacted by a possible reintroduction of visa requirements for entry into Senegal:
- all European countries, Brazil, Canada, China, Congo, Djibouti, India, Japan, Mauritius, South Korea, United Arab Emirates and the United States.
