EU targets Somalia with visa curbs as president pushes back on returns
Al Jazeera
•Fri, 26 Jun 2026 15:18:02 +0000
📰 What Happened
The European Union has imposed visa restrictions on Somali citizens, escalating a dispute with Mogadishu over the return of Somalis living in Europe illegally. The bloc’s member states approved the measures on Thursday, June 25, 2026, acting on a report that Somalia was not doing enough to take back nationals who had been refused the right to stay.
Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud pushed back forcefully during an Independence Day event on Thursday, insisting that his government would readmit verified Somali citizens but questioning whether many of those being returned were actually Somali nationals. "We haven't rejected our people; they own this country. And we cannot reject them," Mohamud said, but noted that "we have questions about how those people would be returned." He pointed out that people across the Horn of Africa share similar physical appearances and that some individuals present themselves as Somali to claim asylum in Europe, including some who "don't know the Somali language." He offered to help verify the true nationality of returnees and redirect them to their countries of origin if they were not Somali.
🔍 The Backstory
Somalia has been in a state of crisis for more than three decades, beginning with the fall of Siad Barre's regime in 1991 and the subsequent civil war that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. The rise of al-Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militant group, has further destabilized the country, creating one of the world's most severe humanitarian crises. Millions of Somalis fled to neighboring countries and beyond, creating a large diaspora in Europe, North America, and the Middle East. The EU has been pushing for more effective returns of rejected asylum seekers as part of a broader migration management strategy, but Somalia's weak institutional capacity, ongoing security threats, and the practical difficulty of verifying nationality in a region with fluid borders and limited documentation make repatriation particularly challenging. The visa restriction measure is a standard EU tool under its migration policy framework, but its application against Somalia risks undermining diplomatic relations at a sensitive time.
🎯 Why It Matters
This confrontation highlights the deep tensions between European migration enforcement policies and the realities of countries emerging from decades of conflict. Somalia is still recovering from a devastating civil war and battling an Islamist insurgency by al-Shabaab, making it ill-equipped to absorb mass returns of people who may not have strong ties to the country. The EU's use of visa restrictions as leverage also risks damaging relationships with a fragile Horn of Africa state at a time when Western nations need Somali cooperation on counterterrorism and regional stability.
The European Union has imposed visa restrictions on Somali citizens, escalating a dispute with Mogadishu over the return of Somalis living in Europe illegally. The bloc’s member states approved the measures on Thursday, June 25, 2026, acting on a report that Somalia was not doing enough to take back nationals who had been refused the right to stay.
Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud pushed back forcefully during an Independence Day event on Thursday, insisting that his government would readmit verified Somali citizens but questioning whether many of those being returned were actually Somali nationals. "We haven't rejected our people; they own this country. And we cannot reject them," Mohamud said, but noted that "we have questions about how those people would be returned." He pointed out that people across the Horn of Africa share similar physical appearances and that some individuals present themselves as Somali to claim asylum in Europe, including some who "don't know the Somali language." He offered to help verify the true nationality of returnees and redirect them to their countries of origin if they were not Somali.
Somalia has been in a state of crisis for more than three decades, beginning with the fall of Siad Barre's regime in 1991 and the subsequent civil war that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. The rise of al-Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militant group, has further destabilized the country, creating one of the world's most severe humanitarian crises. Millions of Somalis fled to neighboring countries and beyond, creating a large diaspora in Europe, North America, and the Middle East. The EU has been pushing for more effective returns of rejected asylum seekers as part of a broader migration management strategy, but Somalia's weak institutional capacity, ongoing security threats, and the practical difficulty of verifying nationality in a region with fluid borders and limited documentation make repatriation particularly challenging. The visa restriction measure is a standard EU tool under its migration policy framework, but its application against Somalia risks undermining diplomatic relations at a sensitive time.
This confrontation highlights the deep tensions between European migration enforcement policies and the realities of countries emerging from decades of conflict. Somalia is still recovering from a devastating civil war and battling an Islamist insurgency by al-Shabaab, making it ill-equipped to absorb mass returns of people who may not have strong ties to the country. The EU's use of visa restrictions as leverage also risks damaging relationships with a fragile Horn of Africa state at a time when Western nations need Somali cooperation on counterterrorism and regional stability.