Vice President of Seychelles, Ahmed Afif, has confirmed the decision of his country to impose restrictions on Nigerians seeking to travel to the West Indian Ocean country.
While confirming the decision, Afif said Seychelles immigration authorities had been instructed to grant Nigerians with diplomatic passports and residential permits access into the country. He added that Nigerians seeking to enter Seychelles as tourists or new immigrants have been banned indefinitely.
Afif said Seychelles was able to link Nigerians to many criminal activities, especially drug-trafficking and online fraud syndicates.
According to Seychelles News Agency, he said: “We have seen a clear link between this with certain people from Nigeria. In the past two weeks, for example, 13 people coming from Nigeria have been arrested when entering Seychelles because they were carrying drugs into the country
“In one case, 62 Nigerians who said they were on holiday used false credit cards and the money was never credited to the accounts of these establishments.
“These establishments have lost money. These people spent free holidays in the country at the expense of the establishment owners, and there is nothing that can be done for them.”
Afif’s comments came days after controversy erupted on social media after some Nigerians said they were being denied visas for no tenable reasons by Seychelles. Nigeria has encountered visa bans from other countries in recent months, including the United Arab Emirates, which added the country to a list of 17 African countries not welcome.
Afif said Seychelles does not have any issues with Nigeria and Nigerians but the country was only concerned and needed to do act after a recent spike in criminal activities linked to Nigerians.
He said: “We do not have a problem with Nigeria or its people though we do not tolerate such criminal activities in our country. There are other online scams originating from Nigeria. We have seen that these people are also coming to Seychelles and doing those scams.
“When we checked the payments made for them to come to Seychelles, it is from only one source. This is for different people coming on different days, which shows an organized syndicate.”
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