The Trump administration announced Friday that it is adding six new countries to the existing travel ban, joining the seven already on the list. Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania all made the new list of nations President Donald Trump is cutting off travel from, citing security risks.
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According to Washington Post, people across the African continent, and especially in Nigeria, are not too happy with the new ban. Nigeria represents Africaโs most populous nation and biggest economy. Under the new measure, most Nigerian citizens, as well as those from Eritrea, would be blocked from coming to live and work in the United States. The ban also affects citizens from Tanzania and Sudan who would be barred from the competitive U.S. visa lottery.
In a statement issued on Friday which begins, โDefending American lives and safety is the Presidentโs highest duty,โ the White House claims the new policy to be โthe height of common senseโ and, while they donโt specify what security risks these specific countries have been proven to pose, the statement says the new rules apply to nations that โfail to conduct proper identity management protocols and procedures, or that fail to provide information necessary to comply with basic national security requirementsโincluding sharing terrorist, criminal, or other identity information.โ
The statement also says that the โnew restrictions will not apply to tourist, business, or other nonimmigrant travel.โ
After the announcement, Niยญgerยญian President Muhammadu Buhari launched a committee to โstudy & addressโ the changes, his office tweeted Saturday.
โNigeria remains committed to maintaining productive relations with the United States and other international allies especially on matters of global security,โ the presidentโs office said in a statement.
According to the Post, Democrats, who widely anticipated this move, had already blasted it as โclearly discriminatoryโ and that accusation is compounded by how vague U.S. officials have been about why, exactly, these countries have been banned. Being that Trump has seemingly always had a hard-on for banning Muslim-majority countries from U.S. travel, simply citing โconcernsโ just isnโt enough of an explanation.
An example of how this policy contradicts reality lies in officialsโ insistence that Sudan is a state sponsor of terrorism despite the countryโs widely praised transition last year from military rule to a civilian-led government.
As for Nigeria, the countryโs citizens are probably the most harshly affected being that they accounted for one of the biggest groups of visa overstays in 2018, according to the Department of Homeland Security, and it currently has more than 300,000 immigrants residing in the United States.
Niยญgerยญian Sen. Mohammed Sani Musa, who represents part of central Niger state, said lawmakers would work to reverse the new policy.
โWe are a giant of Africaโthe biggest population of black people in the world,โ Musa said, โso this is unfortunate. Itโs harsh. And I hope itโs temporary.โ
Atiku Abubakar, the countryโs former vice president, also weighed in urging the United States to reconsider the scope of the policy.
โI call on President @realDonaldTrump to consider adopting measures that individually target those in government who have failed in their duties, rather than target the entire Nigerian population,โ he tweeted Saturday.
Abubakar Sidiq Usman, a writer and new media specialist for the Nigerian Senate, said, โIt sends the message that Nigerians cannot be trusted. Those going to the U.S. for business or leisure will face more scrutiny now.โ
Matthew Page, an Africa analyst at Chatham House in London, spoke on how this move comes at a time when the U.S. is supposed to be trying to grow business and business relationships in Africa.
โInstead of deepening ties to Africaโs biggest economy, the administration appears to be going out of its way to sour its relationship with one of the continentโs most important nations.โ
Finally, Osai Ojigho, director of Amnesty Internationalโs Nigeria office, said in a statement that the ban โdemonizesโ the countryโs people.
โIt can only officialize discrimination,โ she said, โand harm those fleeing conflicts, torture and those who simply want to unite with their families in the U.S..โ
Trumpโs original travel ban was instituted in 2017. That ban, which federal courts truck down but the U.S. Supreme court upheld, was widely criticized as xenophobic and Islamophobic and inspired nationwide protests. These new add-ons to the ban, which take effect on February 22, may very well be received the same way within the U.S. and abroad.
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