Tanzania: Surprise As Tanzanians Banned in Lottery to Secure U.S Visa

By Jacob Mosenda

Dar es Salaam — Tanzanians were yesterday looking for answers over a surprise ban by the...

US administration from participating in the popular visa lottery system that allows winners to enter and work in the US.

Netizens took to social media to try to find meaning of the ban by the US in President Donald Trump's latest additions of six countries to US visa restrictions.

Tanzania alongside Eritrea, Sudan and Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria and Myanmar will have their citizens restricted to enter the US through respective conditions imposed on them.

For Tanzania, the conditions were in the form of a ban from participating in the annual visa lottery which grants up to 50,000 successful applicants US residency. Some 290 Tanzanians last year won the lottery green cards.

The ban takes effect on February 22, according to the statement issued by the US.

Trump's administration defended its controversial decision saying the affected countries felling short of US security standards, including passport technology, and failed to share information on criminals and terrorist suspects.

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Efforts to reach Tanzania government officials for comment did not bear fruit as all phones called went unanswered by press time.

Tanzania has recently intensified the issuance of national IDs and electronic passports. The government has also been on over drive to register all SIM card holders using the biometric system, with up to 15 million users said to have had their lines switched off for failing to beat the January 20 deadline.

It is however, not known whether the concurrent issuance of IDs, e-passports and biometric registration of SIM cards has anything to do with the conditions stated by the US in restricting visa conditions for Tanzanians.

According to the US restrictions posed on Tanzania, travellers seeking business, medical and tourism visas will continue to be served.

Commenting on the Tanzanian ban, Mr Innocent Shoo of the College of Diplomacy Kurasini-Dar es Salaam said the US action to remove Tanzania from the visa lottery will have economic impact on the country.

"First, number of Tanzanians travelling to the US will be reduced. The Diaspora community would not grow, hence affecting remittances they send back home. Investments in the country will decrease," he noted.

He added, "There is transfer of technology which will slow down. There are also cultural exchanges; for example, we have Kiswahili language, so Tanzanians living there are our ambassadors, meaning the number of Tanzanians spreading Kiswahili will decrease".

He also addressed the issue of tourism as saying Tanzania has been wooing tourists from the US.

"If asked where they came from, they say.... I come from Tanzania, the land of the Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar, among other attractions. So tourism will be affected, "he said.

Commenting on the reasons given by the US including democracy and good governance, Mr Shoo said the US did not do justice because Tanzania is fairly doing well still.

However, Khoti Kamanga, a professor of International Law, University of Dar es Salaam said there would be no economic impact on the US decision because there are other alternative options.