Turkey Embassy denies placing visa ban on Nigerians

The Turkish Embassy in Nigeria has denied reports that the country has placed a visa ban on Nigerian passport holders, saying the reports were false and should be disregarded.

Reports had made the rounds last week that countries like Turkey, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates had placed visa ban and revoked certain privileges for Nigerian passport holders, such as visa-on-arrival, e-visa, and outright passport issues.

But in a rebuttal on Saturday, the Embassy affirmed that there was no visa ban on Nigerians, saying the reports were false and misleading.

The Personal Secretary to the Turkish Ambassador to Nigeria, Wunmi Evelyn, who spoke with journalists in Abuja, said though Turkey no longer allows Nigerian passport holders to obtain its e-visa, which was previously a seamless process, that did not translate to banning visa holders from Nigeria.

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“There is no visa ban on Nigerian passport holders,” Evelyn said.

“As it is well-known, if there will be any update regarding rules and procedures of the policies and practices of any country, these updates are officially notified to the respective foreign ministries, and statements/announcements are issued by the embassies.

“Visa applications are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. While every application has been considered as case by case, for an applicant who has previously been denied a visa, if there is not any fraud or forged documents detected, he or she should correct the mistakes that have been made in his or her initial application and try to improve the quality of his/her application.

“Besides, he or she should update the documentation and refrain from supplying old versions of required supporting documents,” she added.

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