Visa Ban: Nigeria failed to share information on criminals and Terrorists - US
Posted by FN Editor | 4 years ago | 1,494 times
The Trump administration’s controversial visa and travel bans has now been extended to include four more African countries.
The new restrictions will see the United States no longer issue immigrant visas that offer a path to permanent residency, and possibly citizenship, to nationals of Nigeria and Eritrea, US officials have confirmed. Between them, Nigeria and Eritrea account for 14% of all green cards issued annually to African nationals, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Nationals of Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar will also face similar restrictions.
For their part, citizens of Tanzania and Sudan will now be omitted from the United States’ popular visa lottery scheme which is typically available for nationals in countries that have low levels of immigrant populations in the US. Despite initially reported to be affected by the expanded travel ban, Belarus has been excluded altogether.
The US has defended its decision with claims that the affected countries fell short of its security standards, including passport technology, and failed to share information on criminals and terrorist suspects. However, the restrictions will likely face intense criticism of suspected discriminatory undertones with two of the four affected African countries being Muslim-majority nations.
“The administration’s expanded travel ban now affects close to a quarter of the population of the African continent,” said Gyude Moore, a former Liberian government minister and current fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington DC. “Less than a year after the US government unveiled its new US-Africa trade policy Prosper Africa, nationals of Nigeria, the continent’s largest country and economy, are being banned from visas that may lead to permanent residency in the US.”
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