THE administration of United States President Donald Trump has commenced plans to place a general visa ban on Nigerians.
According to a report by the Washington Post, an internal memo signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday outlines a proposal that could impose visa restrictions or entry bans on up to 36 additional nations.
These countries are expected to comply with newly established requirements from the US State Department within a 60-day timeframe or face potential travel restrictions.
United States President Donald Trump is considering imposing a travel ban on Nigeria and a host of other countries, mostly from Africa.
The affected countries are expected to meet new requirements laid down by the State Department within 60 days.
“The new list includes Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
“The memo identified varied benchmarks that, in the administration’s estimation, these countries were failing to meet. Some countries had “no competent or cooperative central government authority to produce reliable identity documents or other civil documents,” or they suffered from widespread government fraud.”
Others are Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Bhutan, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Syria, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
The countries on the new list are also expected to submit to the State Department, on Wednesday, an initial plan of action to meet the new requirements.
In March, Trump had considered imposing a travel ban on 43 countries, while Nigeria was not on the list.
The 43 countries were divided into three groups: red, orange, and yellow.
The red group consists of 11 countries whose nationals would be barred from entering the US.
The orange group comprises 10 countries whose visas would be sharply restricted.
The countries under yellow were given 60 days to address concerns.