U.S visa applicants in Africa are suffering from extraordinarily high rates of refusals with over 60 percent refusal in Ghana, Liberia, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania and Somalia.
More than half of applicants in those countries have been denied within the last one year with the situation worsening, according to Per Second News.
The refusal rate is startling given that all the countries except Somalia are not listed as a terrorist haven.
Investigations also showed that over 40 percent of visa applicants for B1B2 visas in Nigeria were denied, with some visa agencies saying that refusal rates in the country are even worse. Denials vary by country, and applicants are typically not told why they are denied.
According to the U.S State Department, Bureau of Consular Affairs refusal rate for the fiscal year 2015, thirteen countries had a denial rate of over 60 percent in 2015. The highest rates were in African and Middle Eastern countries.
“We have around 60 per cent visa refusal over the past couple of months and the figure is too high to be normal,” confirmed a source in the State Department.
No official announcement on why so many visas are being refused has been made by either the State Department or the embassies in affected countries as yet.
Per Second News also gathered that all African delegations to this year’s African Global Economic and Development Summit were all denied visas.
The Summit hosted by the University of Southern California includes African business leaders, government officials and others in the U.S. But this year, the African summit has no Africans.
“Usually we get 40 percent that get rejected but the others come,” said Mary Flowers, chair of the African Global Economic and Development Summit.
“This year it was 100 percent. Every delegation. And it was sad to see, because these people were so disheartened.”
Flowers estimated that she lost about 100 attendees, including speakers and government officials. The countries affected included Sierra Leone, Guinea, Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia and South Africa.
“I have to say that most of us feel it’s a discrimination issue with the African nations,” said Flowers. “We experience it over and over and over, and the people being rejected are legitimate business people with ties to the continent.”