The United Arab Emirates (UAE) immigration authorities have imposed a visa ban on Nigerians seeking to visit the oil-rich country, noting that all submitted applications will be rejected and fees non-refundable.Â
The development is the latest in a series of back and forth between the Nigerian authorities and the UAE immigration authorities on visa restrictions and their engagement with Nigerians who wish to visit.Â
According to reports, the latest development was announced in a notice issued on Friday by Dubai authorities to its trade partners in Nigeria, including travel agencies.Â
Although no reason was given for the ban, the Dubai authorities declared that all applications were on-hold until issues between the UAE Government and the Nigerian Government are resolved.Â
What the UAE Immigration Authorities said
The latest decision by the UAE immigration authorities is bad news for all Nigerians seeking to travel to the UAE. The notice to Nigerian travel agents partly said:Â
“All Dubai applications submitted are now rejected. It is general for Nigerians and approvals are on hold at the moment. Kindly advise your clients to resubmit C2=A0 applications when the issue is resolved between both governments.’’Â
What you should knowÂ
This action by the UAE authorities seems to lay credence to allegations of an ongoing rift between Nigeria and the Middle East country, especially since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.Â
Recall that in June 2021, there were reports that immigration authorities of the wealthy Middle East country barred Nigerians from applying for work permits and placed visa restrictions on them.Â
Â
The issue that most people don’t understand goes back to the Nigeria Passport. Each passport is supposed to have a unique digital code based on PKI/PKD protocols that are outlined in the ICAO Annex. Nigeria has not had a functional system for over 5 years, meaning that no passport issued in the last 5 + years can be digitally confirmed when someone travels over a border. This is one of the reasons that the U.S. stopped issuing visas in certain situations, you cannot confirm the identity of the person carrying the passport. There is a lot more to this than people realize, not just government bickering.
Thanks you Snyder for the insight
Why will the application fees be non-refundable when they have chosen to reject all applications? That should be contested, please.
Nonsense! Nigeria has been issuing digitally-readable and confirmable passport since 1998, a biometric-readable passports since 2007, and a passport with a biometric chip since 2014. There was a temporary shortage of booklets a few years ago, which has since been resolved, but nothing to do with digital readability or confirmation.
The UAE simply do not want a tsunami of Nigerians in their country (which is well within their rights), same as they have done with several other nations, including other Arab nations such as Egypt and Iran.
EXCELLENT! Nigerians should stay and develop their own nation!