Nigeria to address issues that led to US visa restrictions

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria’s government pledged Saturday to try to address security issues the Trump administration cited in its decision to stop granting immigration visas to people from Africa’s most populous nation.

Immigrants from Nigeria and three other countries no longer will be eligible for visas allowing them to live in the United States permanently, the White House said Friday.

They would still qualify for tourist and business visas, but Nigerians rarely are granted those now because the US says too many visitors from the West African country overstay their visas.

Nigerians, who have long decried the visa application processes in both the United States and Europe as racist, expressed disbelief and anger after the Trump administration announced the new policy, which takes effect on February  21.

The US government said it decided to impose new visa restrictions on a total of six more countries that failed to meet minimum security requirements for verifying travellers’ identities and whether individuals posed a national security threat.

Immigrant visas were targeted because people with those visas are the most difficult to remove after they arrive in the United States, US officials said.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhar has established a committee “to study and address the updated US requirements,” presidential spokesman Femi Adesina said Saturday.

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