PRESIDENT Donald Trump of United States (US) has signed the Executive Order banning Nigerians from enjoying two-year visa regime of the country.
In one of the sections of the executive orders, there is the inference that Nigerians will not be given two-year visa if the country also does not give American citizens visas of the same number of years.
Section Nine of the order states: “Visa Validity Reciprocity. The (US) Secretary of State shall review all nonimmigrant visa reciprocity agreements to ensure that they are, with respect to each visa classification, truly reciprocal insofar as practicable with respect to validity period and fees, as required by sections 221 (c) and 281 of the INA & USC 1201 (c) and 1351, and other treatment. If a country does not treat United States nationals seeking nonimmigrant visas in a reciprocal manner, the Secretary of State shall adjust the visa validity period, fee schedule, or other treatment to match the treatment of United States nationals by the foreign country to the extent practicable.”
Reacting to the development, a US official (names withheld), however, said the ban on two-year visa for Nigerians was still speculative.
According to him, the executive order on visa regime, as signed by President Trump, was not emphatic as the order on ban on seven Muslim countries explictly stated in the order.
He said since the Executive Order was signed on Friday, the terms and enforcement would be known as the week unfolds.
Indications have emerged that Nigerians may be affected in the ban placed on some countries by the United States President, Donald Trump, on the country’s immigration policy.
This came as many parts of the world experienced travel chaos at airports and many travellers were either detained at various US airports or could no longer travel to visit their families.
One of those affected, Sir Mo Farah, a Somali who is a long-distance runner and who had his family in Oregon, US, lamented that he could no longer enter to live with his family because Somali was one of the countries affected by the ban.
Sir Mo wrote on Facebook: ‘On 1st January this year, Her Majesty The Queen made me a Knight of the Realm. On January 27, President Donald Trump seems to have made me an alien.
“I am a British citizen who has lived in America for the past six years – working hard, contributing to society, paying my taxes and bringing up our four children in the place they now call home.
“Now, me and many others like me are being told that we may not be welcome. It’s deeply troubling that I will have to tell my children that Daddy might not be able to come home – to explain why the President has introduced a policy that comes from a place of ignorance and prejudice.’
“I was welcomed into Britain from Somalia at eight years old and given the chance to succeed and realise my dreams. I have been proud to represent my country, win medals for the British people and receive the greatest honour of a knighthood.
“My story is an example of what can happen when you follow polices of compassion and understanding, not hate and isolation.
The sudden ban has affected dozens of other British residents, many of whom had been trapped in transit, unable to fly to the US.
Airlines such as British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are offering refunds to customers whose travel plans have been ruined.
One woman affected is Hamaseh Tayari, a UK resident with an Iranian passport, who was stranded in Costa Rica after being denied boarding a flight home to Glasgow because it was due to stop-over in New York.
The distraught vet, who was on holiday with her boyfriend, said: ‘This has shocked me. We just discovered (what Trump did) at the airport when we went to check in.
“I want people to know this isn’t just happening to refugees. I am a graduate and have a PhD. It has happened to a person who is working and pays tax.’
Ms Tayari has found a different route home and will shortly return to Glasgow.
She said: ‘We had been saving for months for this holiday and it will cost me a month’s salary just to get home.”
Iranian-born physics student, Naz Jahanshahi, from Manchester, was devastated to learn that she might have to cancel a trip to the US with her boyfriend.
The 21-year-old wrote on Facebook: “Words cannot describe how angry, upset and shocked I am right now. After Trump’s recent ban on people from ‘Muslim’ countries it’s turned out that because I am classified as a British Citizen and travelled to Iran three years ago to see family, that I am denied entry into the US.
Another Briton affected is World Bank economist, Jaffar Al-Rikabi.
He wrote on Facebook: “I am an Economist at the World Bank (based in Jakarta), and will not apparently be able to join my fellow colleagues at our MFM training week in Washington DC in March.
“Why? Because, I’m a dual British-Iraqi national and hence President Trump’s recent executive order bans me from flying to the US. Allegedly, I am a threat to US national security.’
Iraqi-born Nadhim Zahawi, Tory MP for Stratford-on-Avon, is also banned from the US.
He told the BBC: “I don’t think I have felt discriminated since little school when the kids were very cruel, as a young boy coming from Iraq of Kurdish origin.
‘For the first time in my life last night I felt discriminated against, it’s demeaning, it’s sad.”
The ban means he can’t visit his sons who are studying at Princeton University in New Jersey.
He said: “One of my sons had a life-threatening illness last year, spent time in a hospital in Princeton, wonderful healthcare in Princeton University hospital, but we couldn’t have travelled if we were going through the same thing now.
‘There are many other human stories – the community in the UK. There are hundreds of thousands of people who were born in Iraq who are now British citizens. I always thought we were equal.
The Muslim Council of Britain has issued a statement condemning the travel ban.
Harun Khan, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: ‘This ban on Muslims is not only an inconvenience, it is downright dangerous to our values of equality and non-discrimination. And yet, our Prime Minister has found it hard to express these values when representing us on the world stage.
“We are told that British values include the rule of law and ‘mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith.”
And the Iraqi government is said to be considering a reciprocal ban on US citizens entering Iraq.
Mr Trump’s 90-day visa moratorium extends beyond just citizens of Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Libya and Yemen.
It also applies to people who originally hail from those countries but are traveling on a passport issued by any other nation.
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