United States President, Donald Trump has imposed a visa ban on Nigeria and three other countries.
Aljazera reported that “the US will suspend the issuance of visas that can lead to permanent residency for nationals of Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar and Nigeria.”
It quoted acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf as making the disclosure during a call with reporters on Friday.
Nonimmigrant visas were not affected for the additional countries, Wolf said. Those visas are given to people travelling to the US for a temporary stay. They include visas for tourists, those doing business or people seeking medical treatment.
Wolf further said the US government will also stop issuing “diversity visas” to nationals of Sudan and Tanzania.
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Those visas – which Trump has criticised in the past – are available by lottery for applicants from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.
Wolf said Nigeria and other countries failed to meet US security and information-sharing standards, which necessitated the new restrictions. The problems Wolf cited ranged from sub-par passport technology to a failure to sufficiently exchange information on “terrorism” suspects and criminals.
“These countries, for the most part, want to be helpful,” Wolf said, “but for a variety of different reasons simply failed to meet those minimum requirements that we laid out.”
The original travel ban – issued during Trump’s first week in office in January 2017 – barred nearly all immigrants and travellers from seven Muslim-majority nations. It caused widespread outrage and chaos at airports across the US. The policy was revised amid court challenges, but the US Supreme Court ultimately upheld it in June 2018.
The existing version of the ban includes the Muslim-majority nations of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. North Korea and Venezuela also face visa restrictions, but those measures affect relatively few travellers.
Those restrictions will remain in place, Wolf said.
The ban will take effect from February 22.
