The Republic of Seychelles has placed a ban on Nigerian passport holders applying for short-term visa or holiday purposes.
Seychelles confirmed this in a rejection mail it sent to a travel content creator.
The content creator shared a screenshot of the mail via Twitter yesterday.
“We regret to inform you that your application has been denied, as per immigration regulation, for now we are not accepting any NIGERIAN passport holder for holiday purposes.
Kindly contact http://www.ics.gov.sc/ (Seychelles Immigration) or call 248 4 293 636 for more information,” the content of the screenshot read.
As caption, she wrote, “It seems Seychelles just placed a ban on Nigerian passport holders. The thing with having a Nigerian passport is you can be postponing travel plans until you become Bill Gates and immigration policies will be like Dey play”
This comes just six months after Nigeria signed a pact for direct flights between the two countries.
Before the ban, Nigeria had a long-standing visa-free agreement with Seychelles which allows Nigerian citizens free entry without a visa for 30 days.
Meanwhile, Nigerian Twitter users have exploded in anger over the ban. Below are some of such comments:
@Nkemsdairy said: “Being Nigerian can be challenging at times. Just yesterday, my authorization form to Seychelles was denied at Kotoka airport, while my Ghanaian friend’s was approved right before my eyes. It’s hard to express how disheartened I felt ????”
@Nefo9: “And I really wanted to visit Seychelles after watching the YouTube documentary by @tayoainafilms. This is crazy. This people don’t rate us at all. A whole Giant of Africa. ????????????”
@Aogsstout: “Even Mozambique now denies Nigeria Passport Holders . You will need extra documents to visit. Whereas other West African passport holders don’t. Nigerian fraudsters and drug dealers have done grave damage to our reputation as a people.”
@IK101: “Bali, Mauritius, now Seychelles, yet another place where Nigerian fraudsters have created a bad image for everybody.
The discrimination will continue until Nigerians tackle the fraud culture we now have amongst us. We’re too loud when we make Money. It’s disgusting.”
@tee_pro1: “This is one of the reasons we need sensible leaders that can bring Nigeria back to its position in the global affairs. We have all the resources to be better and to be respected.”