Italy has stopped giving Schengen passes to people with Somali passports

In the past ten years, the Somalia passport has been getting better. It went from being ranked 128th on the Passport Power Rank more than ten years ago to 95th now. Even so, there are still problems with how the text is made public and how other countries understand it.

In a surprise announcement last week, the Italian Embassy stopped giving Somali passport users in Somalia Schengen visas.

The Italian embassy didn’t say why, but people who spoke to The EastAfrican said that it had found fake applicants with diplomatic passports who were trying to get Schengen visas.

It said, “Please be advised that the Embassy of Italy in Nairobi (the capital of Kenya) has temporarily ceased issuing entry Schengen visas.” This means that all applications handled in Mogadishu are affected.

The mission then thought that most of the people asking for diplomatic passports were not going on official business, which meant they might be breaking the law.

Non-EU citizens can get a Schengen visa, which lets them enter a country in the Schengen area of the European Union, which includes Italy, for short stays of up to 90 days in any 180-day time.

People usually need a permit from one country to join the Schengen area, but they can travel anywhere in the area as long as they don’t leave its borders.

Each Schengen member state has to make sure that applicants give enough and correct information, which is then sent to other partner states.

That choice could affect how well Somalia’s visa works.

The Passport Index says that since 2019, Somalia’s passport has gotten a better mobility score. This means that it is now easier to move around the world with this document. It went from 32 at the height of Covid-19 to 46, which is its highest level in 30 years.

Entry without a visa

Among East African Community countries, this passport is still the hardest to travel with. It needs a visa to enter 152 countries, and only 10 countries let users enter without a visa.

But the country’s power rank has gone up by about 20 levels in the last ten years, to 95.

Based on statistics from the International Air Transport Association and the Global Mobility Report, the Passport Index says that the Somalia passport was better than those of Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.

The Italian mission’s decision to stop giving visas could be a setback because other Schengen countries might do the same. People traveling on foreign passports will have to go through a lot of checks, which goes against the whole point of having them in the first place: So it’s easier for government workers to get to work.

A decade ago, Somali passports were almost useless and were given out by hawkers who worked in Abdallah Shideeye, an unpopular market for trade.

The people who worked for Abdallah Shideeye were sneaky and took over for many institutions that weren’t there, like the immigration authority, which is now called the Immigration and Citizenship Agency (ICA).

A lot of people were happy to use the papers that didn’t seem to be authorized. These included passports, school certificates, ID cards, and even property title deeds.

A real passport

All of Abdallah Shideeye’s markets went away when the Transitional Federal Government set up offices in Mogadishu and the African Union peacekeepers provided protection. It was the beginning of Somalia’s real passport again.

Mohamed Mohamud liked it when some European countries put their trust back in Somalia’s main travel document. He often visits countries like Djibouti and Ethiopia that are close by.

“It makes me happy that important European countries like Italy, Sweden, Belgium, and Norway have decided to stamp their visas on our passports more than once,” Mohamud said.

That might go now. In fact, the ICA had been trying to get more countries to recognize the Somalia international passport. They did this by telling other countries about the security features that make sure the passport can’t be changed or faked.

As ICA’s new strategic plan says, more people across the country should be able to apply for a Somalia passport over the next five years as the agency adds more offices and mostly handles applications online.

A member of the Somalia Lower House (Peoples’ House) of parliament named Dr. Abdillahi Hashi Abib has asked the Somali government to take care of the problem.

A lot of worry

“Dear Minister, In a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he said, “I write to you with great urgency and deep concern about the careless and fraudulent visa applications that put at risk the safety of countries that have put their trust in the official signatures of our government.”

The lawmaker pointed to “a troubling trend” in which several embassies in Mogadishu said they would no longer give visas to Somali people with civilian, civil servant, or diplomatic passports.

“Your ministry needs to act quickly to send a formal Note Verbale (Legitimate) to all embassies in Mogadishu, reassuring them that all future visa requests will be legal, clear, and answerable.”