The European Union (EU) amassed a staggering €3.4 million from rejected Schengen visa applications from Nigeria alone in 2023, according to recent Schengen Visa Statistics.
This figure contributes to a larger sum of €130 million earned globally from declined visa applications, with African and Asian nations shouldering 90% of these costs, as reported by EUobserver.com.
According to data from Schengen Visa Statistics, in 2023, African nationals received 704,000 negative responses for their visa requests. This means that €56.3 million went up in smoke, considering that visa application fees are not refundable.
The report highlights that African countries, particularly, are disproportionately impacted. Rejection rates reach as high as 40-50% for nations such as Ghana, Senegal, and Nigeria.
These figures do not account for the ancillary costs incurred from being unable to travel for business and leisure, nor the expenses for legal advice and private agencies involved in processing visa applications.
Algeria is the country of origin for most rejected applications in 2023, representing 23.5 per cent of all amount spent on rejected applications.
Algerians also have the second-highest number of rejected applications compared to all – 289,000 out of 704,000, representing 42.3 per cent of all requests.
