UPDATE 2-Nigeria working to have U.S. travel ban lifted -foreign minister

(Adds Pompeo and Onyeama remarks)
By Humeyra Pamuk
WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Nigeria has begun working on
the security and information sharing requirements for the
lifting of a U.S. travel ban on prospective immigrants from the
African nation, Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama said
on Tuesday.
Speaking at a joint news conference in Washington with U.S.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Onyeama said Nigeria was
'blindsided' by the U.S. decision on Friday to add it and five
other nations to an expanded version of the U.S. visa ban.
U.S. President Donald Trump issued an expanded version of
his travel ban on Friday as part of a presidential proclamation
which said Washington would suspend the issuance of visas that
can lead to permanent residency for nationals of Eritrea,
Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar and Nigeria. Temporary visas for tourists, business people, students and
workers from those nations will not be affected, it said.
U.S. officials said the countries failed to meet U.S.
security and information-sharing standards, which necessitated
the new restrictions. "We've identified all those requirements and we had actually
started working on all them," Onyeama said. "It was very
gratifying to come here, speaking to U.S. officials and to
understand more clearly the reasoning behind this."
Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa, is the biggest
country on the list whose citizens will be suspended from U.S.
visas that can lead to permanent residency.
Pompeo also said Nigeria could do more in sharing important
national security information, adding that he was 'optimistic'
that Abuja would move in that direction.
He said some of the areas were security measures taken with
regards to passports and information about criminal histories
and suspected terrorist information being made available.
"With regards to lost and stolen passports, we're putting in
place the architecture that will now make that – the information
and the data on that - immediately available to the U.S. and all
the member states, member countries of Interpol," Onyeama said.
He added that once all the criteria was met, Nigeria was
looking forward to being taken off this visa restriction list.
He did not predict a time frame.
The original travel ban, issued in 2017, barred nearly all
immigrants and travelers from seven countries with majority
Muslim populations. The policy was revised amid court
challenges, but the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately upheld it in
2018.
Trump has made tougher immigration enforcement a central
focus of his 2020 re-election campaign. His travel ban policy is
popular with Republican supporters.
The new travel ban will take effect on Feb. 21, according to
the proclamation.