Member states: Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia
The AMU, comprising five North African countries, was founded in 1989, with the aim of political and economic unity amongst its member states. To attain this, one of its objectives is to gradually achieve the free movement of persons, along with the free circulation of goods, services and capital7.
Visa openness varies greatly among its member states. Mauritania (ninth on the AVOI) ranks highest within AMU, offering visa-free access to eight other countries and visa-on-arrival facilities to all others. Tunisia ranks in the middle of the index, while the other three countries are each in the bottom quarter. Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia together offer visa-free access to a combined 16 countries, far below the continental average. None of the three countries maintains visa-on-arrival facilities.
Since the last report, only Tunisia and Libya have made some positive adjustments to their visa policy, with Tunisia extending visa-free access to Benin and Libya and doing the same for regional neighbour Algeria, thus advancing regional integration within AMU. Morocco made two changes: citizens of Cabo Verde may now enter visa-free, while those from Côte d’Ivoire now require a visa. Overall, only Algeria and Tunisia offer visa-free access to nationals from all AMU Member States. Libya and Morocco each require a visa ahead of travel from two of their regional neighbours.
The visa-free policies of the member states have reached relatively high levels of harmonisation with respect to intra-regional travel. In 70% of regional travel scenarios, nationals are able to enter another country within the community without the need for a visa. Libya and Morocco still maintain the highest level of visa restrictions within the region (each requiring a visa from two other AMU Member States, Mauritania and Morocco, and Libya and Mauritania respectively), while Mauritania maintains a visa-on arrival policy for nationals of Morocco. All other travel within the region is visa-free, on a reciprocal basis. In 20% of travel scenarios, member states’ visa policies differ from one another (no reciprocity). Mauritania’s visa openness is not reciprocated by two of its regional neighbours. Given the relatively low number of countries that make up this group, any bilateral change between two countries is likely to reflect a significant change in the regional score.
7 archive.uneca.org
