Operating in the same regional space, the two main organizations in West Africa, ECOWAS and UEMOA, share the objective of achieving the free movement of people. though, it is constantly noted that the rights which should facilitate this mobility are far from being implemented and that a contrast remains between the objective of achieving the effective realization of the principle of the free movement of people and the practices which reflect a limited exercise of this freedom. This study relates to issues related to the migration issue in West Africa, reports on the apparent adequacy of the regime adopted by ECOWAS and UEMOA with the effect of providing the principle of free movement of people with a real legal basis. It thus appears that the quality of this set of standards arises both from the diversification of beneficiaries and from the coherence of its content. However, the analysis of the modalities of implementation of the regime put in place reveals imperfections due to both the incomplete construction and the ineffective application of the right to free movement of people in the ECOWAS-UEMOA area. Moreover, the presence of extra-legal factors arising from the divergences and inconsistencies observed in the positions of actors, notably states, regional organizations and West African peoples, suggests the persistence of practical obstacles which compromise the achievement objectives. It follows that the free movement of people in the ECOWAS-UEMOA area must be considered as a dynamic process whose evolution depends on the capacity of all the actors to reinvent responses adapted to the specificity of the West African’s problems and context.