Nigeria rejects US pressure to accept deported Venezuelans – DW – 07/11/2025
Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar on Friday said that his country would not bow to increasing US pressure to accept deported Venezuelans as President Donald Trump wants them to do.
Tuggar said Trump was attempting to strong-arm African nations.
"You have to also bear in mind that the US is mounting considerable pressure on African countries to accept Venezuelans to be deported from the US, some straight out of prison," said Tuggar in an interview on Nigerian television.
"It will be difficult for a country like Nigeria to accept Venezuelan prisoners into Nigeria. We have enough problems of our own," said the foreign minister. "The issue of accepting Venezuelan deportees, honestly, I don't think is something that Nigeria is in a position to work with."
One reason Trump may be using rougher tactics with Nigeria is its membership in the BRICS+ political and economic bloc.
Created in 2006 by the acronym-giving countries Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, the BRICS club has grown to include developing nations such as Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and accounts for roughly 37% of global economic output.
Nigeria joined the 11-member BRICS+ bloc in January and President Bola Tinubu attended the group's July 6-7, 2025, summit.
As the summit wrapped up, Trump announced that the US would slap 10% punitive tariffs on imports from BRICS+ countries.
Tuggar, however, said it was unclear if recent US measures were directly related to Nigeria's participation in the summit, which Trump slammed as an "anti-American" event.
Nigerian President Tinubu was not among those African leaders invited to the White House on Wednesday when Trump welcomed the presidents of Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania and Senegal.
Liberian and US sources reported that Trump used the opportunity to ask each to take in third-country migrants deported from the US.
The this week reported that the US State Department sent a document to African leaders invited to Wednesday's White House event calling on them to agree to the "dignified, safe, and timely transfer from the United States" of third country nationals.
Trump has repeatedly sought — at times successfully — to send immigrants he is unable to deport home to third-country nations instead.
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Speaking of the US pressure campaign, Tuggar said: "I think it would be unfair to insist that Nigeria accepts 300 Venezuelan deportees. Maybe that might just even be the beginning."
The foreign minister did not expand on what asks might come next but addressed one of the other tools the Trump administration has employed as a means to leverage US advantage, brushing off US claims of that its new visa policy is reciprocal.
The US Mission in Nigeria this week announced updates to non-immigrant visa policy for Nigerians.
Tuggar says the only change Nigeria has made is that 90-day visas are now issued electronically rather than upon arrival — as in the US. The change he said, is intended to streamline the process and make it more efficient.
Tuggar added: "We are talking to the Americans. We are engaging them. We are also explaining and reminding them that we issue" visas the same way that they do.
"Our visa doesn't say that every American is only being given 90-day visas or three months or whatever. We give Americans… there are loads of Americans that have these long-term visas… it is not based on reciprocity."
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"The weaponization of food to exert pressure on a civilian population must not be normalized." The organization also lambasted the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) over the nearly daily deaths of Palestinians shot by Israeli authorities near its distribution centers. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video "What we are seeing is unconscionable; an entire people being deliberately cut off from food and water, all while the Israeli forces commit daily massacres as people scramble for scraps of food at distribution sites," says Amande Bazerolle, MSF head of emergency response in Gaza. "Any shred of humanity in Gaza has been wiped out in the ongoing genocide." The report noted that the scarcity of food "is no longer about what people can afford. There is barely any food available in most of the strip." Meanwhile, Reuters interviewed United Nations and humanitarian agency representatives, who said the enclave was on the brink of running out of the specialized therapeutic food needed to save the lives of severely malnourished children. Salim Oweis, a spokesperson for UNICEF in Amman, Jordan told Reuters that supplies of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), a crucial treatment, would be depleted by mid-August if nothing changed. An analysis within the US government found no evidence supporting Israeli and US claims that the Palestinian militant group Hamas was systematically stealing US-funded humanitarian supplies. The US and Israel have backed a new armed private aid operation under the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The operation has seen around 1,000 Palestinians seeking food supplies shot and killed by Israeli forces near the GHF militarized distribution site. The analysis was conducted by a bureau within the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and made public via an exclusive report by the Reuters news agency. It was completed in late June, examining 156 incidents of theft or loss of US-funded supplies reported between October 2023 and May of this year. Reuters cited a US State Department spokesperson as disputing the findings, saying there is video evidence of Hamas looting aid but stopping short of providing such evidence. Israel insists it is committed to allowing in aid but that it must control it to prevent theft by Hamas. The UN World Food Program estimates that a quarter of Gaza's over 2 million Palestinians face famine-like conditions, while thousands suffer from acute malnutrition. World Health Organization officials and doctors in the enclave report that children and others are dying of starvation. Israel blames Hamas for the crisis, which has intensified since Israel intensified its blockade on Gaza in March, followed by making the GHF the sole distributor of aid in the enclave in May, replacing UN-led humanitarian aid distributors. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video France's plans to recognize Palestinian statehood were met with widespread approval in the Middle East. The Saudi Foreign Ministry called it a "historic decision," calling on other countries to follow in France's "positive" steps and "adopt serious positions that support peace and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people." France and Saudi Arabia cohost a ministerial United Nations meeting on Palestinian statehood next week. Jordan's Foreign Ministry also expressed appreciation for the decision, describing it as "a step in the right direction toward the realisation of the two-state solution and the end of the occupation." Palestinians also welcomed the move. Senior Palestinian Authority official Hussein al-Sheikh said it "reflects France's commitment to international law and its support for the Palestinian people's rights to self-determination and the establishment of our independent state." The militant group Hamas, which Israel, the United States, the European Union and others designated as a terrorist organization, said the move would do "justice to our oppressed Palestinian people and support their legitimate right to self-determination." Spain, an EU member which recognized Palestinian statehood last year, also welcomed the move. "Together, we must protect what Netanyahu is trying to destroy. The two-state solution is the only solution," said Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, an outspoken critic of Israel's offensive in Gaza. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The US and Israel are so far the strongest opponents of France's decision to formally recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September. French President Emmanuel Macron announced the plans on Thursday. According to a tally by the French AFP news agency, it would bring the number of countries that now recognize or plan to recognize Palestinian statehood to at least 142. France would be the first G7 power to do so. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it a "reckless decision." "This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace. It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7," Rubio wrote on X. Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, left 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians. Around 250 more were abducted and taken hostage in Gaza. Israel's subsequent war has so far killed over 59,000, according to the health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave. The UN considers the figures reliable. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move "rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became." "A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel - not to live in peace beside it," he said.
