Nigeria on Tuesday said that it is working to address the issues that led to a suspension of United States immigrant visas to its citizens.
Nigerian Minister for Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama made the announcement during a joint press conference in Washington D.C. with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
On Friday last week, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an expanded version of his travel ban that targets prospective immigrants from Nigeria and five other countries, a move that could affect thousands of people and reignited debate on whether the policy is discriminatory.
U.S. officials said the countries failed to meet U.S. security and information-sharing standards, which necessitated the new restrictions.
Onyeama said that Nigeria had identified all those requirements and actually started working on them.
“Essentially, there are the security measures that were taken with regard to electronic passports, lost and stolen passports, data being shared, criminal histories being made available and shared, known terrorists and suspected terrorists information also being made available,” Onyeama said.
The minister added that he hoped that once the necessary regulations were met that Nigeria will be taken off the visa restriction list.
“With regard to lost and stolen passports, we are putting in place the architecture that will now make that information and the data on that immediately available to the US and all the member countries of Interpol. We hope to have that up and running very soon and no longer going through third parties. Hopefully, once that has been achieved, we look forward to being taken off this visa restriction list,” Onyeama said.
Pompeo, on his part, said that he was optimistic that Nigeria will be more proactive in sharing important national security information to aid in the global fight against terrorism.
According to the proclamation, the United States said it will suspend the issuance of visas that can lead to permanent residency for nationals of Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar and Nigeria. Temporary visas for tourists, business people, students and workers from those nations will not be affected, it said.
The U.S. government also will stop issuing “diversity visas” to nationals of Sudan and Tanzania. The visas, which Trump has criticised, are available by lottery for applicants from countries with low rates of immigration.
The new travel ban will come into effect on February 21.
