The inability of the United States to gain access to critical data about Nigerian travellers is behind the consideration of a visa ban on the country, diplomatic sources have told TheCable.

However, the ban on “birth tourism” is not targeted at Nigerians as it is to be applied worldwide.

President Donald Trump announced at the World Economic Forum (WEF) that he was planning to extend a visa ban to more countries, with the US media naming Nigeria alongside Belarus, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Sudan and Tanzania as the new names on the list.

Although Nigeria partners with the US in the war on terror, drugs and cyber crimes, a “problematic” information flow between the Nigerian immigration and the International Police Organisation (Interpol) has made it difficult for the US to track critical data, the highly placed sources informed TheCable.

This is contrary to speculations that the US was planning a visa ban because of reported human rights infractions in Nigeria.

“A third party company currently holds Nigeria’s passport database and this is considered a hang-up by the Americans who would be more comfortable with a better information flow between Nigeria and Interpol,” a diplomatic official told TheCable.

Interpol is an international organisation that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime control in its 194 member countries.

The agency helps coordinate cooperation among the world’s law enforcement institutions through criminal databases and communications networks — and Nigeria is found wanting in these areas.

A diplomatic office told TheCable that the US is already implementing restrictions on immigrant visas issued to Nigerians because of the database issue.

But non-immigrant visas — such as B1/B2 issued for business and tourist purposes — are yet to be affected.

On a brighter note, according to the sources, “a software package is already being developed to allow information flow from Nigeria into the Interpol database”.

The Trump administration is expected to announce the visa ban on Monday but it is still unclear if Nigeria will be included given the improvement in the information flow.

The first travel ban issued by Trump affected seven Muslim-majority countries.
The second was issued in March 2017 and the third in September 2017.

The US supreme court upheld the travel ban in 2017 after two appeal courts had initially blocked the move .

The US government had said the travel restriction is necessary to prevent potential acts of terrorism because countries on the list do not adequately screen travellers.

At present, restrictions blocks travellers from Libya, Iran, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, North Korea and Venezuelan politicians. Chad, a West African country, was removed from the list in April 2018.

fairfora:
Didn't they say there would be consequences for the federal government rudeness to the rule of law, continued and unlawful detention of people, despite the court rulings that a bail he granted? The DSS invasion during the proceedings can only happen in a banana republic or zoo by animals. Only animals would enter anywhere unlawfully. Are we all not aware of these? It's not a surprise to me at all.

DaBullIT:
So , in your heart of hearts , genius of all genius minds

You are saying USA introduced restriction on Nigerian Citizens who are the victims of ''DSS excesses , Judiciary's madness and Nigerian Government's rudeness instead of Nigerian Politicians who are the perpetrators of this wickedness ?

You are too sensible but it's like 1 millionth of sensibility

Write-up clearly stated a “problematic” information flow between the Nigerian immigration and the International Police Organisation (Interpol) has made it difficult for the US to track critical data Simply PUT , Immigration service in ZOO is not providing information to the International Police Organization , this INFORMATION is what INTERPOL and / or US Embassies will use to profile Nigerian Travellers , In other words , USA wants the ZOO immigration to update their information on Nigerian citizens , which is a simple and normal ask


I am surprised at your conclusion , but since here's a zoo

I'd say Hello Monkey , son of a Giraffe

fairfora:
Didn't they say there would be consequences for the federal government rudeness to the rule of law, continued and unlawful detention of people, despite the court rulings that a bail he granted? The DSS invasion during the proceedings can only happen in a banana republic or zoo by animals. Only animals would enter anywhere unlawfully. Are we all not aware of these? It's not a surprise to me at all.