EU targets Somalia with visa curbs as president pushes back on returns

President says his country will readmit genuine nationals but insists Europe must first verify deportees’ identities.Mogadishu, Somalia – The European Union has imposed Visa restrictions on Somali citizens, escalating a dispute with Mogadishu over the return of Somalis living in Europe illegally.The bloc’s member states approved the measures on Thursday, acting on a report that Somalia was not doing enough to take back nationals who had been refused the right to stay.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Somali referee banned by US to officiate European Super Cup, UEFA sayslist 2 of 3Hero’s welcome for Somali referee denied entry to US World Cup tournamentlist 3 of 3Israel fetes Somaliland’s leader as it seeks to expand Red Sea influenceend of listSomalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud pushed back, saying his government would readmit its citizens, but said that many returnees were not Somali nationals.“We haven’t rejected our people; they own this country. And we cannot reject them,” the president said at an Independence Day event on Thursday, adding that Somalia had “questions about how those people would be returned.”People across the Horn of Africa share a similar appearance, he said, and some present themselves as Somali to claim asylum in Europe. He pointed to past cases in which individuals sent back as Somalis turned out not to be, including some who “don’t know the Somali language.”“If they are Somali, then we’ll take them. If they aren’t, we’ll help you find out where they are from, and you can send them there,” Mohamud said.The pressures driving people to leave are rooted in decades of upheaval.Somalia is still rebuilding after the collapse of its central government in 1991 and the long civil war that followed.Recovery efforts have been stifled by the ongoing armed rebellion of al-Shabab, an Al-Qaeda-linked armed group that has waged deadly attacks since 2006.