Trump Slaps African Travelers With US$15,000 Bond, Biden Promises To Reverse

Outgoing US President, Donald Trump, has approved a new temporary travel rule that requires citizens from some African countries to post bonds of US$15,000 in order to visit the US.

The rule comes into effect on 24 December, however, President-elect, Joe Biden, has reportedly promised to reverse it along with many other rules by the Trump administration.

The six-month pilot programme – which targets those on both visitor and business visas – will act as a deterrent to those who overstay their visas, the US state department said.

Trump had made restricting immigration a central part of his four-year term in office.

President-elect Joe Biden, a Democrat, has pledged to reverse many of the Republican president’s immigration policies, but untangling hundreds of changes could take months or years, reports Reuters.

The visa bond rule targets countries whose nationals had an “overstay rate” of 10% or higher in 2019 and will now be required to pay a refundable bond of $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000.

While those nations had higher rates of overstays, they sent relatively few travellers to the US, Reuters news agency reports.

The African countries affected are; Angola, Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Libya, Mauritania, Sudan, Sao Tome and Principe, Cape Verde, Burundi.