By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Nigeria has integrated its database on stolen and lost travel documents (SLTD) with the INTERPOL Global System (IPSG) in Lyon, France partly to meet requirements set by the United States for Nigerians to obtain visas leading to immigration.
The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) announced on its twitter handle that it has uploaded 150,000 records, which makes Nigeria the 54th country in the world to do so.
NIS Director General, Muhammad Babandede, thanked Nigeria Police, National Central Bureau (NCB), International Organisation for Migration (IOM), INTERPOL, and the U.S. National Central Bureau (USNCB) for their support in achieving the feat.
He said it is part of the renewed war against identity fraud and advised Nigerians to stop using falsified, altered, invalidated and/or formerly declared lost/stolen travel documents to cross the borders of the 194 member-countries of INTERPOL.
Such records/documents are now available on the global radar, he stressed, and urged travellers and passport applicants to use their true identities “as the war against identity fraud has become global and highly automated.”
U.S. visa ban on Nigeria
Nigeria was among six countries in an expanded version of U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban announced in January, which blocked their citizens from obtaining U.S. visas that can lead to permanent residency.
The ban became effective in February.
U.S. officials cited issues such as sub-par passport technology and failure to sufficiently exchange information on terrorism suspects and criminals.
Last month, Interior Minister Ogbeni Aregbesola asked the U.S. ambassador in Abuja to drop the ban, but also chaired a committee to address American concerns.
However, President Muhammadu Buhari himself has acknowledged that overturning the ban on Nigerians will take “enormous resources.”
He said in Abuja that after suggestions from a report by the committee, the government had “fully resolved” two out of six U.S. concerns, “substantially satisfied” two others and had made “some progress” on the last two.
He explained that they were still drafting a “workable plan” for the report’s full suggestions, which require “enormous resources.”
“I am delighted that this progress, especially the uploading of Lost and Stolen Passport and Travel Documents, has been acknowledged by the United States Government,” Buhari said.
He promised that Nigeria would harmonise citizen identification data held by different parts of government, create a national criminal management system modelled on INTERPOL and start a national criminal DNA laboratory.
Nigerians can still obtain visas for study, work, and travel in the U.S., but only 8,000 Nigerians obtained immigrant visas in the 2018 fiscal year.