More than 100 midwife leaders signed an ICM statement on June 12, 2026 demanding that visa refusals be reconsidered. These refusals prevented delegates from Africa and Asia from attending the International Confederation of Midwives' 34th Triennial Congress in Lisbon, Portugal — a major professional gathering held June 14–18, 2026.

The timing was crushing: the statement came just two days before the congress began, leaving affected delegates no time for appeals, new applications, or alternative arrangements. While the ICM did not specify which countries were hit hardest, the statement singled out Africa and Asia as the regions where visa refusals and processing delays were most acute.

This congress matters because it happens every three years and shapes the professional and policy agenda for midwifery associations across more than 140 countries. It draws practitioners, policymakers, and researchers from around the world. When delegates from two regions with the highest maternal and infant mortality and the worst midwifery staffing shortages cannot attend, the priorities that get set do not reflect the people who need the most help.

The ICM had already tried to lower cost barriers. A bursary programme announced in October 2025 covers visa fees ranging from €10 to €150, depending on the applicant's home country — acknowledging that even modest admin costs shut people out of international meetings. But a bursary fund that pays the visa fee does nothing when the visa application is rejected outright.

Portugal is part of the Schengen Area, a bloc of European countries with simplified border rules. Many African and Asian nationals need a Schengen short-stay visa to enter. These visas are processed by Portuguese consulates or, in some cases, by consulates of other Schengen countries acting on Portugal's behalf. Processing times, required documents, and refusal rates differ widely from one consulate to another and from one country to another — a structural inconsistency that professional organizations hosting large conferences in Schengen states run into repeatedly.

The ICM's public statement does not name a specific consulate, member state, or particular failure. It asks for "urgent reconsideration," which in Schengen procedure means a narrow window: there is no standard fast-track appeals process for short-stay visa denials. The final decision rests with the issuing authority. Whether the Portuguese government or the broader Schengen system has responded to the request is not confirmed in available records.

Here is what the situation reveals: a funding tool designed to cover costs fails when the legal barrier itself — the visa refusal — blocks entry. Paying a €150 visa fee is pointless if the application is rejected because the applicant cannot prove ties to their home country, does not have sufficient financial documents, or is flagged by risk screening — the most common reasons Schengen authorities give for denying visas to applicants from sub-Saharan Africa. The ICM's June 12 statement is a political signal, not an administrative solution. It tells member associations, future host governments, and Schengen authorities that the organization sees this as a pattern, not an accident.

That framing carries weight for what comes next. The ICM's next Triennial Congress — the 35th — is scheduled for Abu Dhabi in 2029. The UAE has its own visa system, and getting delegates from Africa and Asia there will bring a different set of obstacles. For the ICM and its member associations, the Lisbon experience will likely shape how they choose future venues and how they negotiate with host countries to make visa access easier.

One number remains unknown: how many affected delegates actually could not attend. The ICM has not released that figure. Until it does, the full scale of the exclusion — and what it meant for representation of African and Asian midwifery associations in the congress's decision-making sessions — stays hidden.