The government of the United States of America has said it notified all foreign governments of a change in its performance metrics for identity-management and information sharing criteria on March 11, 2019 before eventually announcing visa restrictions for Nigeria and other countries last week.
TheCable reports that in a proclamation published on the White House website, the US said Nigeria and the five other affected countries were among the worst-performing in the world.
However, it said there are prospects for near-term improvements for the six countries.
โThe process began on March 11, 2019, when the United States government formally notified all foreign governments (except for Iran, Syria, and North Korea) about the refined performance metrics for the identity-management and information-sharing criteria,โย the proclamationย read.
โDHS identified the worst-performing countries for further interagency review and for an assessment of the potential impact of visa restrictions.
โIn addition, the United States government, led by the department of state, continued or increased engagements with many countries about those countriesโ deficiencies.
โA number of foreign governments sent senior officials to Washington, D.C., to discuss those issues, explore potential solutions, and convey views about obstacles to improving performance.
โAs a result of this engagement, one country made sufficient improvements in its information-sharing and identity-management practices and was removed from consideration for travel restrictions.โ
In the proclamation, Donald Trump, the US president, said the acting secretary of homeland security submitted a report on September 13 recommending the actions to be taken on the countries identified including โincentivizing those foreign governments to improve their practicesโ.
The proclamation imposes aย ban on the issuance of immigrant visasย to Nigerian passport holders.
Chad was removed from the travel restriction list for making sufficient improvement in its information-sharing and identity-management practices.
