Why we placed travel restrictions on Nigerians — US

The United States has given reasons for imposing visa restrictions on Nigerians and five other countries’  nationals.

It said Nigeria did not comply with the established identity-management and information-sharing criteria assessed by the performance metrics.

The US also said  Nigeria did not adequately share public-safety and terrorism-related information necessary for the protection of the national security and public safety of the US.

Nigeria  is  the only country in West Africa sanctioned by the US Department of Home Security following a review and update of the methodology (performance metrics).

Other countries on the list are Eritrea, Myanmar, Tanzania, Sudan and Kyrgyzstan.

The new visa regime announced by the US government on January 31, involves the suspension of the issuance of immigrant visas to Nigerian passport holders. It comes into effect on February 21.