Free movement of people is a flagship project of the AU’s Agenda 2063, which aims to remove restrictions on Africans’ ability to travel, work, and live on the African continent.1 The Protocol on Free Movement of Persons (PFMP) was adopted by AU Member States in January 2018 alongside the AfCFTA, and aims to progressively implement several core rights related to mobility:
- The right of entry;
- The right of residence; and
- The right of establishment.
The Protocol’s initial focus is on the right of entry, relating to visa-free short stays. Mali, Niger, Rwanda, and São Tomé and Príncipe have ratified the Protocol, notwithstanding that 32 countries have signed it. This falls short of the 15 ratifications required or entry into force. The most recent ratification, by Niger, was in July 2019, more than six years ago.2
The low uptake in number of ratifications is a curious anomaly, given that its parallel agreement - the AfCFTA - is now in its operational phase. The general ideals of the PFMP are widely supported and symbolise continental unity.
The AU recognises RECs as building blocks of regional economic integration between members of individual regions and the wider African Economic Community3, and in terms of African mobility as providing important functional corridors for movement of people. RECs demonstrate how the benefits as well as some of the broader concerns around movement can be managed and implemented in practice. The PFMP remains an important tool to complement the AfCFTA’s ambitions on movement of goods, capital and services across African borders, adding the important mobility dimension that gives meaningful effect to the notion of Africa’s economic and social integration. For this, the RECs will continue to be a meaningful, practical and realistic force in support of human mobility.
Migration is seen as politically sensitive - notwithstanding widely accepted benefits around easing the movement of persons alongside progressive extension of migration rights. Concerns over a perceived loss of sovereignty over border management processes and security concerns heighten political risk and, in some cases, fuel anti-immigrant sentiment. However, as was noted at a February 2025 AfDB/African Union High Level Dialogue on a Visa Free Africa which convened Ministers, Heads of RECs and key institutions on the margins of the African Union Summit, we must continue to advocate for visa free movement of Africans, and ensure that citizens across the continent, especially youth, are the main proponents of this call.4