The Trump administration is reportedly considering extending its travel restrictions to 25 more African countries.
The expansion would include Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, as well as other large nations including DR Congo, Egypt, and Ethiopia. Angola, which US President Donald Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden visited in December, is also on the new list, according to The Washington Post and The New York Times.
US concerns about the listed countries range from doubts about government competence in issuing authentic identity documents, to anti-semitism, and visa overstays. Country-specific data from a 2023 Department of Homeland Security report, cited by the White House when announcing its restrictions, showed around 400 people from Chad overstayed — 49.5% of visitors from the country that year. And 200 from Equatorial Guinea (21.9%) did the same. But this compares to 20,000 overstays from Spain, at a rate of 2.4%, and 15,000 from the UK (0.4%).
An affected country could gain a reprieve by agreeing a deal with the US to be a “safe third country” to receive deported citizens from another nation, the Times reports.
