Nigeria remains resolute as she refuses to participate in Trump administration's third country deportation policy

NIGERIAN government ministers have ruled out accepting a deal with US president Donald Trump's administration that will involve the country accepting American deportees as several other African countries like Rwanda and South Sudan done.

As part of a clampdown on immigration, President Trump's administration has entered into a pact with Rwanda, Eswatini and South Sudan that will involve them accepting US deportees. Washington is paying these countries to accept nationals of foreign countries expelled from the US and it is believed that the Trump administration is looking for more nations to participate in the scheme.

However,  Kimiebi Ebienfa, a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that Nigeria remains firm in its position that such deportees will never be accepted, citing national security and economic concerns. He added that while countries like Rwanda, Eswatini and South Sudan had opted to cooperate with US deportation efforts, Nigeria’s priorities differ.

Last month, Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria's foreign minister had revealed that the Trump administration was mounting pressure on African countries to accept deportees convicted of crimes under a third-country deportation policy. He described the move as unacceptable and warned that such a policy would unfairly burden countries like Nigeria, which are already grappling with their own internal challenges.

Mr Tuggar added: “The US is mounting considerable pressure on African countries to accept Venezuelans to be deported from the US, some straight out of prisons. It will be difficult for countries like Nigeria to accept Venezuelan prisoners as we have enough problems of our own. We already have 230m people.”

Although Mr Tuggar did not reveal the details of the diplomatic pressure being mounted on African countries, the Trump administration had previously announced new visa policies for Nigeria and others. In June, the US Department of State revised its visa policy for Nigerian nationals, introducing more restrictive terms for most non-immigrant, non-diplomatic visas.

According to the new policy, most Nigerian citizens seeking to enter the US will be issued single-entry visas valid for just three months. In addition, the Trump administration has also been threatening countries that refuse to cooperate with US deportation efforts with visa sanctions under Section 243(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which authorises the US to suspend visas to countries that obstruct deportations.

In April, the US threatened to revoke all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders and to restrict any further issuance to prevent entry into the country over the African country’s initial refusal to accept the return of its repatriated citizens. US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, made the threat in a statement posted on social media on Saturday, April 5.

According to the Institute for Security Studies, Africa, the US paid El Salvador $5m in March to incarcerate over 250 Venezuelan deportees accused of gang affiliations. Since then, the Trump administration has expanded this policy to Africa, with recent deportations of individuals from countries such as Vietnam, Jamaica and Yemen to South Sudan and Eswatini.

Washington's Department of Homeland Security justified the decision by saying their home countries refused ‘to take them back. South Sudan was the first African country to accept deportees under Trump’s revived third-country deportation policy, followed by Eswatini and Rwanda.