United States President, Donald Trump, is weighing a potential travel ban targeting Nigeria along with several other nations, most of them African.
According to a report by The Washington Post, an internal memo, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday, details a proposal that may lead to visa limitations or outright entry bans for as many as 36 new countries.
The countries listed are expected to comply with newly introduced U.S. State Department standards within a 60-day window or risk facing travel sanctions.
Among those on the proposed list are Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Additional countries named include Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Bhutan, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Syria, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
The memo outlines several criteria under which these countries reportedly fall short.
“Some countries had ‘no competent or cooperative central government authority to produce reliable identity documents or other civil documents,’ or they suffered from widespread government fraud,” the memo states. “Others had large numbers of citizens who overstayed their visas in the United States.”
As part of the directive, these nations are required to submit an initial compliance plan to the State Department by Wednesday.
While the memo categorizes the 43 nations into three tiers, red, orange, and yellow, the red group includes 11 countries whose citizens may be completely barred from entering the U.S.
The orange group includes 10 countries facing stringent visa restrictions, while those in the yellow category have 60 days to resolve the identified issues.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said the agency would not “comment on internal deliberations or communications,” while the White House has yet to issue a public response.
