Saturday, August 9, 2025 - The Federal Government has reiterated its refusal to accept deportees from the United States, distancing itself from recent decisions by countries like Rwanda, Eswatini and South Sudan that have agreed to receive foreign nationals expelled from the United States of America.
The spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Kimiebi Ebienfa, who confirmed the government’s stance to Saturday
PUNCH in an interview, stressed that Nigeria remains firm in its
position, citing national security and economic concerns.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, had in
July revealed that the President Donald Trump administration was mounting
pressure on African countries to accept deportees convicted of crimes into
African countries under his “third-country deportation” policy.
“The US is mounting considerable pressure on African
countries to accept Venezuelans to be deported from the US, some straight out
of prisons,” Tugar said.
He described the move as “unacceptable” and warned that such
a policy would unfairly burden countries like Nigeria, which are already
grappling with their own internal challenges.
“It will be difficult for countries like Nigeria to accept
Venezuelan prisoners into Nigeria. We have enough problems of our own, we
cannot accept Venezuelan deportees to Nigeria for crying out loud. We already
have 230 million people,” Tugar stressed.
Although Tugar did not reveal the details of the diplomatic
pressure being mounted on African countries, the Trump administration had
previously announced new visa policies for Nigeria and others.
In June, the U.S. Department of State revised its visa
policy for Nigerian nationals, introducing more restrictive terms for most
non-immigrant, non-diplomatic visas.
According to the new policy, most Nigerian citizens seeking
to enter the US will be issued single-entry visas valid for just three months.
The change marked a significant shift in the U.S. visa
reciprocity arrangement with Nigeria and comes as part of a broader effort by
the U.S. government to align global visa standards with its immigration and
security protocols.
The Trump administration has also been threatening countries
that refuse to cooperate with US deportation efforts with visa sanctions under
Section 243(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which authorises the US
to suspend visas to countries that obstruct deportations.
In April, the US threatened to revoke all visas held by
South Sudanese passport holders and to restrict any further issuance to prevent
entry into the country over the African country’s initial refusal to accept the
return of its repatriated citizens.
The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, made the threat in a
statement posted on his X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday, April 5, 2025.
“I am taking actions to revoke all visas held by South
Sudanese passport holders and to restrict any further issuance to prevent entry
into the United States, effective immediately, due to the failure of South
Sudan’s transitional government to accept the return of its repatriated
citizens in a timely manner,” he wrote.
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