The racist penalty of Western visa regimes

Sudanese climate activist Roaa should have been leading meetings with other youth advocates at a United Nations climate conference in Germany in June.

Instead, the 24-year-old was at home, having wasted hundreds of dollars and nearly two months preparing for a visa that was denied in less than 48 hours. Many of her peers, mostly from the Global North, flew into the city of Bonn without a hitch.

“I was the one who was leading the whole process, but I wasn’t on the ground. I cried a lot, like literally every night,” Roaa, who asked that her surname and location not be published, told Context.

“Knowing everyone is there (at Bonn), but you are not there maybe because of your nationality gives you a very bad feeling, like I’m less than those people,” she said from her home in the Middle East after leaving Sudan in 2023 when civil war began.

Stricter border and visa rules are increasingly limiting the participation of nationals from the Global South in high-level talks that tackle climate, global health, economic systems, conflicts and other pressing issues, policy researchers say.

“We are the ones who are affected the most, but we are not in the room,” said Roaa, a medical student. “Most of the conferences happen in Europe and in the...

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