Yusuf Tuggar, minister of foreign affairs, says Nigeria will not accept Venezuelan deportees from the United States.
The minister was reacting to the reported pressure from the United States to send Venezuelan deportees, some from prison, to some African countries.
Speaking on Channels TV’s Politics Today programme on Thursday, Tuggar said Nigeria already has a booming population and a myriad of other challenges it’s battling with.
“It would be difficult for countries like Nigeria to accept Venezuelan prisoners into Nigeria,” Tuggar said.
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“We have enough problems of our own; we cannot accept Venezuelan deportees to Nigeria. We already have 230 million people.”
TheCable had reported that Nigeria’s refusal to accept asylum seekers from the US was partly responsible for the recent visa restrictions imposed on the country by President Donald Trump.
An alleged imbalance in visa reciprocity from Nigeria was cited as the reason for the hard-hitting penalty, although the exact details were not made public by the US.
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There were claims — now confirmed to be false — that Nigeria caused the policy change by stopping to issue five-year visas to American citizens.
Tuggar said there are ongoing engagements with the US to clarify the issue.
“What Nigeria has done that differs is simple. We used to have visa on arrival that wasn’t running efficiently. We introduced these online electronic visas that you can apply for so that it saves you time instead of just arriving and then going through the process of getting the visa when you have already arrived,” he said.
“The same way I am talking to you on my laptop I can just simply apply for a Nigerian visa and you get it and then you fly and so it makes it easier. This is what we’ve done.
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“We have different categories of visas; there are people that are first time travellers that are coming as tourists that are probably not likely to come back to Nigeria again, maybe because they are coming for a short while and they get those 90-day visas.
“Our visa is not saying that every American is only being given a 90-day visa or three months or whatever. We give Americans and loads of Americans these long-term visas.”
Tuggar, however, stressed that Nigeria will not be a dumping ground for Venezuelan prisoners deported from the US amid Trump’s crackdown on undocumented migrants.
Nigeria had urged the US to reconsider its decision in the spirit of partnership, cooperation, and shared global responsibilities.
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