Namibia's first female president has reportedly ordered the deportation of over 500 Americans, stating: “If Africans need visas to enter the USA, then Americans must also need visas to enter Namibia.”
There’s no evidence such deportations from Namibia are taking place. The Namibian Presidency has said no such deportation of US citizens is underway, and no such a statement on visas has been issued by the President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.
There’s no evidence Namibia’s new president has ordered the deportation of 500 Americans from the country, contrary to a claim circulating on social media.
A post on Instagram which makes the claim includes a picture of Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Namibia’s first female president who took office in March this year, alongside a photo of Donald Trump.
Text on the image says: “Namibia’s first female president has reportedly ordered the deportation of over 500 Americans, stating, ‘If Africans need visas to enter the USA, then Americans must also need visas to enter Namibia.’”
As of 1 April, citizens of the US, and other western countries including the UK, now require a visa to enter Namibia. Plans for these visas for those from “non-reciprocating countries” (that don’t offer Namibians visa-free entry) have been in place since before Donald Trump was re-elected.
But the claim that Americans are being deported from the country en masse has been denied by the Namibian government.
A statement issued on behalf of the Namibian Presidency on Facebook on 16 April said: “The Presidency has noted with concern the circulation of social media posts and online articles alleging that President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has ordered the deportation of over 500 American nationals on the grounds of visa reciprocity.
“The Presidency wishes to make it categorically clear that no such order of deportation or statement has been issued by the President and no mass deportation of American nationals is underway.
“All immigration related offences in Namibia are dealt with in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Namibia. Namibia remains committed to maintaining strong diplomatic and bilateral relations with the United States of America, and all immigration matters are handled through established legal and diplomatic channels.”
The president’s page posted screengrabs of similar versions of the claim, with the caption: “Fake News!” The international relations ministry executive director Penda Naanda also told the Namibian Sun it was “fake news”.
When asked about the claims, the US State Department directed Reuters to the Namibian government’s statement. We’ve contacted the US State Department directly and will update this fact check if we hear back.
We’ve not seen any other credible reports of the supposed deportations, and other fact checkers including Africa Check have also found no evidence to support the claims.
Before sharing information like this that you see on social media it’s important to consider whether it comes from a reputable and trustworthy source. Our toolkit can help you better navigate misleading content online.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because there’s no evidence that this has happened and the Namibian presidency has said no such mass deportation of Americans is taking place.
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