US Adds Nigeria, 5 More Countries to Travel Ban List

Ololade Adeyanju/

The US government today added Nigeria and five other countries to its travel ban list.

The development will virtually block immigration from the affected countries including Myanmar, where refugees are fleeing genocide.

Beside Nigeria, three other African countries, Eritrea, Sudan and Tanzania, and one former Soviet state, Kyrgyzstan are on the list.

The total number of countries on the restricted travel list now stands at 13.

Immigrant visas, issued mostly to foreigners intending to live in the United States, will be banned from Nigeria, Myanmar, Eritrea and Kyrgyzstan. The ban would prevent immigrants from Sudan and Tanzania from obtaining diversity visas. Homeland Security and State Department officials said some immigrants would be able to obtain waivers from the restrictions, according to a report published in New York Times.

The proclamation, which President Donald Trump was expected to sign today, will take effect on February 22.

The administration has argued that the ban, enacted in 2017 to restrict travel from Muslim-majority countries, is necessary to ensure that countries satisfy security requirements for travel into the United States, or face restrictions until they do.

The expansion of the restrictions, which already affected more than 135 million people in seven countries, is likely to hinder more than 12,300 potential immigrants from resettling in the United States or reuniting with their family.

The effect of the ban on Nigeria is expected to be severe, being Africa’s most populous country as well as its largest economy.

While Nigerians will still be able to visit the U.S. as tourists, they will henceforth be unable to obtain visas that can lead to permanent residency.

A United States government official said the administration was adding Nigeria and Tanzania to the list because of the number of people who come from the African countries on a visa and end up illegally staying in the United States.

The official also said Sudan and Eritrea had not satisfied the administration’s information-sharing requirements, according to New York Times.

Acting U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said the new measure was the result of “failures by the affected countries to meet American security and information-sharing standards”, the BBC also reported.

“These countries, for the most part, want to be helpful but for a variety of different reasons simply failed to meet those minimum requirements that we laid out,” he was quoted as saying.

He said Nigeria and the other countries will be supported to strengthen their security requirements to help them get off the list, the report added.

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