Countries are increasingly introducing strict visa policies against Nigeria, targeted mostly at the male travellers.

In a recent Qatar Visa Policy changes for Nigeria, the Middle East nation said that Qatar Ministry of Interior has announced updated visa regulations for Nigerian travellers, following the recent cases of overstays.

It said that confirmed return transfer must now be booked alongside a Nigerian traveller’s hotel before tourist or transit visa can be processed for male travellers.

“There will be restricted eligibility that only females or families may apply. Male travellers are no longer eligible; unless accompanied by his family. On hotel requirements, only five-star hotels are now accepted for visa qualification. Also, these requirements apply to all pending visa approvals,” it said.

Some months ago, the United Arab Emirates adjusted its visa policy directed at Nigerians and introduced more stringent conditions to restrict more Nigerians from being eligible to access their visa. Also, since July 8, 2025, the US implemented a reciprocal non-immigrant visa policy for Nigerians, limiting most non-immigrant visas to a single entry and a three-month validity period.

THISDAY spoke to Deputy Controller of Immigration who retired recently, on why many countries have introduced stricter visa policy against Nigeria.

He said that Nigeria is regarded as a pariah nation, known globally for corruption and now a mockery of its old self.

He said Canadian government recently denied a Nigerian who worked as policeman in Nigeria asylum. “He applied for a review of the visa decision and during the review it was directed that he should be deported in the next four days. He was accused of promoting corruption in Nigeria. Also, a politician who moved from PDP to APC applied for asylum and he was denied.

“The Canadian authorities said they rejected him because he frustrated democracy from thriving in Nigeria. That shows you the extent Nigeria has decayed, Nigerians are migrating to foreign lands in droves because of economic hardship, unemployment, insecurity; that many barely eat two times a day,” he said.

The ex-Immigration official who now resides in Canada, also said: “Another thing is that many Nigerians who come here don’t have any mission but they just come to hustle; so, they yield easily to temptation to engage in criminal activities. They engage in vices like drug peddling at the door of night clubs and in Canada no crime can go undetected and Nigerians can engage in any crime; even the ones other people will be afraid to engage in. They have the heart,” he said.

He also noted that investigations carried out in recent past showed that many countries do not believe that Nigeria is a poor nation; they believe that Nigeria is a rich country with poor government whose resources are mismanaged.

“Some of them feel that Nigeria has more resources than them and Nigeria has more professionals who are coming to take over their jobs. Even Donald Trump said that Nigeria is one of the most educated immigrants in the US; that he will not allow Nigeria and Mexico to take over American jobs. Then our population is another factor. We are highly populated. We have a lot of resources but they are in the hands of a few,” he said.

He disclosed that a Nigerian woman told him that she came to Canada with N52 million and she was working day and night to earn money to pay the loans she borrowed to come to Canada.

“But I asked her, if you can raise this kind of money, why come to Canada? But she said that what is happening in Nigeria is so pathetic because there is no future for the youths, saying that she couldn’t have engaged in any because the system is frustrating,” he said.

However, he noted that if anyone comes for asylum they may accept the person, give him accommodation and pay him allowance, encourage him to go to school and provide him a window he can take and go to work, but the work could be tedious and may not give him time.

“But even Canada is becoming difficult too. Biometric was conducted on some people about two years ago but up till now they have not said anything about it, but the truth is that no matter how tough it gets, Nigerians are still coming and that is the way they are going to other countries,” he added.

The Executive Secretary of Airline Operators of Nigeria (ART), Olu Ohunayo, said that the US President, Donald Trump, came with stringent immigration rules, which was going to restrict entry and even remove those who already live in the US and Nigeria happens to be one of the countries that fall into that category.

“But that of Qatar is specifically targeted at Nigerians. And I am sure that they are taking a cue from what has happened in the neighbouring country, the United Arab Emirates, whereby we had issues with our youth there who messed up and misbehaved. And at the end of the day, the UAE sanctioned Nigeria, irrespective of their airline (Emirates) coming in, operating into Nigeria; they went ahead with the sanction on visa and other consular activities. Despite the visit of Mr. President and handshakes being advertised and shown all over, Ohunayo said.

He said that it was the restriction introduced by UAE that made Nigerians to shun travelling to that country and now prefer to travel to Qatar, noting that when people begin to move en masse, countries begin to apply restriction.

“So, what Qatar has just done is to show they only need the high-end visitors now and not ordinary visitors anymore. It is not because they intend to generate money. They are not using it to generate more funds per se, they actually use it to restrict immigration and travelling of Nigerians into their country. And then Nigerians are specifically targeted. We just need to accept that we have a problem with the present travelling policy of our youths and Nigerians in particular, whereby everybody just wants to get out of the country. Why do they have that spirit?

“Well, we have found ourselves in a place whereby the youth are desperate to leave the country and everybody is encouraging them, even those who have good jobs. What are they doing? They are all selling their property, they are resigning, selling property, selling their assets, taking big loans just to leave the country. It was part of the things that affected the value of the naira. And in that desperation, we have a lot of people, even those who have nothing doing, all mixing up with professionals and causing us so much embarrassment. We have brought this on ourselves. And we brought it on ourselves because the youth have seen that the country did not give them hope. What we threw back at them was insecurity,” he said.

On the ban on men by Qatari government, Ohunayo said: “I think the blanket ban on men is ridiculous. I have not seen that anywhere where immigration laws stipulate that any man that wants to travel to any country of choice, must travel with his families. I think that is ridiculous, that is absurd, and I think that should be reviewed urgently. They could use some other means of differentiating between genuine travellers and those they doubt their intention, rather than ask every single male from Nigeria to go with their families anytime they are coming to Qatar. That is ridiculous and I hope they will review that as quickly as possible. Qatar has been very stringent. At the time, they were taking about $20,000 being a bank balance. It is incredible.”

The Secretary General of ART said that Nigerians travel a lot and majority of them travel for business, to visit family and friends or attending functions or other events, saying the stringent policy was uncalled for.

Some industry stakeholders said that if the federal government had appointed ambassadors to the foreign missions, before the decision against Nigeria was taken in terms of visa policy, the countries would have interfaced with the Nigerian ambassadors in those countries. They also said that the only way to stop Nigerians from travelling oversea in high numbers is to make Nigeria liveable. (THISDAY)

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