Donald Trump imposes immigration restrictions on Nigeria, others

US President Donald Trump on Friday slapped immigration restrictions on citizens of six countries including Nigeria, in addition to the list of nations already targeted by his controversial travel ban.

Besides Africa’s most populous nation, the new measures also pertain to Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan and Tanzania, administration officials said.

“The president’s decision is the product of a comprehensive and systematic assessment that was conducted by the Department of Homeland Security, as well as in partnership with other federal agencies,” said one of the officials.

The official added that the decision was the “result of these countries’ unwillingness or inability to adhere to certain baseline identity management, information sharing and national security and public safety assessment criteria that were established by the department in 2017.”

Unlike the travel ban Mr Trump unveiled in January 2017 shortly after taking office, which banned citizens of certain Muslim-majority countries from entering US territory, the latest directive, which takes effect 22 February, was less sweeping.

The official said it would only target certain visa categories and would focus primarily on people seeking to move to the US rather than those simply aiming to visit.

US ‘has to be safe’

Mr Trump had announced his intention to lengthen the list of countries last week on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“We have to be safe. Our country has to be safe,” he said.

We have to be safe. Our country has to be safe

DONALD TRUMP

Mr Trump repeatedly promised during his election campaign to implement a complete ban on Muslims entering the US, and he announced his first package of travel bans and restrictions shortly after taking office in January 2017.

The move outraged critics and was struck down by a federal court that ruled the ban amounted to religious discrimination. The administration moved a second version of the policy in March 2017, which was struck down again for similar reasons.