There has been a steep increase in the number of African visitors who have had their visa applications rejected by the French authorities over the last five years. According to applicants and lawyers, requests to visit France regularly get turned down for no good reason. Yet, as Fanny Pigeaud reports, a recent case in Nantes in western France shows that some visa refusals can be overturned by the courts.
“If I'd been American or Chinese, would things have happened in this way?” That is the question on the lips of Moni A Zock, from Cameroon, whom Mediapart met in Yaoundé, who is appalled at the obstacle course she had to overcome in order to get a visa to visit France in June this year. Her battle lasted a month and cost her a great deal of time, money and stress, before ending up before the administrative court at Nantes in western France.
