U.S. President Donald Trump is reportedly considering extending the U.S. travel ban to include Nigeria and 35 other countries, primarily from Africa, according to The Washington Post.
An internal memo signed by then-Secretary of State Marco Rubio listed 36 countries that could face visa restrictions pending presidential approval.
The Trump administration cited insufficient government transparency and weak identity verification systems as the primary reasons behind the proposed expansion.
The draft list includes 25 African countries, such as Nigeria, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Egypt, and Djibouti—America’s key military allies on the continent.
The list also features non-African nations like Bhutan, Cambodia, Syria, Tonga, and Saint Lucia.
U.S. officials said many of the affected nations lack reliable civil documentation systems or a cooperative central authority to verify identities.
Others were cited for issues like widespread government fraud or a high rate of visa overstays by their citizens in the United States.
Governments of the listed countries were instructed to submit initial compliance plans to the U.S. State Department by Wednesday and given 60 days to meet new security and identification standards.
The potential expansion follows an earlier travel ban implemented earlier that month targeting 12 nations, including Afghanistan, Myanmar, Iran, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen, as part of the Trump administration’s broader immigration crackdown.
