Challenges in Implementing Free Movement of Persons

African countries have signed agreements among themselves and with countries from the rest of the world that aimed at liberalizing the movement of persons. However, there are several challenges impeding the implementation of these treaties in realizing free mobility. The challenges range from non-ratification of the treaties to concerns of health and security matters. African countries, though they become pioneer in signing treaties, are reluctant in ratifying such treaties especially if the treaties will disrupt the domestic legal structure. The movement of persons protocols adopted at the continental and regional level address policy areas that are in direct tension with the domestic law of the member states, hence they fail to catch the needed ratification number. The AU Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, the 2005 SADC Protocol and the COMESA protocol are just few of the examples showing the reluctance of African countries in ratifying treaties that bring serious commitment issue. Moreover, there is lack of policy coherence in the different legal instruments- contributing to the low level of implementation of such treaties. On the other hand, many of the African countries belong to more than one regional integration arrangement. The overlapping and at times contradictory requirements of the different RECs makes implementation challenging with regard to those countries that join more than one REC. The issue of policy coherence is also a concern with regard to the AFCFTA as the relationship between the AfCFTA and the RECs has not yet been answered. Factors like Xenophobia, weak administrative capacity, security issues of terrorism and human trafficking are among the factors that cause the low level of implementation of free mobility regimes.