Following the controversial visa and travel bans on Nigeria by the government of the United State of America, many Nigerians are now desperately seeking alternative options to get into the USA by seeking Sierra Leonean passports.
The applicants are expected to enter Sierra Leone through the Liberia and Guinea borders. If approved, successful applicants can now travel to the USA with Sierra Leonean passports as legitimate citizens of the West African country.
However, the Sierra Leonean government have greeted the new with mixed feelings, claiming that the recent spate of deportation of their citizens from the US is owing to the influx of Nigerian citizens into the country.
According to a report compiled by the Office of National Security (ONS, Sierra Leone), the US government, in 2019, deported 16 Sierra Leonean citizens to Sierra Leone for the alleged commission of various felonious crimes. It was also reported that two of the deportees are not Sierra Leoneans.
In the report, Assistant Director for the ONS Serious Crime Unit, Abdul Will told newsmen that his institution is looking to resolve the issue.
The new restrictions were declared owing to the US stand on cutting ties with African countries playing host to terrorism. This will see the United States no longer issue immigrant visas that offer a path to permanent residency, and possibly citizenship, to nationals of Nigeria.
Gyude Moore, a former Liberian government Minister and current fellow at the Centre for Global Development in Washington DC said, “The administration’s expanded travel ban now affects close to a quarter of the population of the African continent.
“Less than a year after the US government unveiled its new US-Africa trade policy Prosper Africa, nationals of Nigeria, the continent’s largest country and economy, are being banned from visas that may lead to permanent residency in the US,” he said.