US to ban visas for four African and Asian countries

The US government is poised to impose visa restrictions on four Asian and African nations refusing to take back their citizens who have been deported from the United States.

US officials say Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea and Sierra Leone would soon be subject to sanctions.

The penalties are meant to coax “recalcitrant” countries into accepting the return of individuals the US tries to remove. Under federal law, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has the authority to ban the issuance of all or certain types of US visas for citizens of such nations.

The officials say Tillerson won’t likely ban all visas. Rather, he would target government officials and their families. The officials were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.