Rejected participants at the trade summit came from Nigeria, Cameroon, Angola, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Ghana, South Africa and more, according to Flowers. Trumps travel ban covers Somalia, Sudan and Libya in Africa, and citizens from those countries did not seek visas for the event.
This conference puts Americans in touch with real people so they can do real business, said Flowers, CEO of Global Green Development Group, which does economic development work in Africa.
A spokesperson for the US state department declined to comment on claims of rejections for summit participants, saying in a statement: We cannot speculate on whether someone may or may not be eligible for a visa, nor on any possible limitations
Applications are refused if an applicant is found ineligible under the Immigration and Nationality Act or other provisions of US law.
This is not the first time the summit has struggled with visa problems, according to Flowers, who has been organizing the event since 2013. In past years, she said, roughly 40% of interested African participants were denied entry.
But the 100% rejections this year meant there were only 50 to 75 participants total instead of the 150 to 200 who typically attend, she said. Financially, thats a gaping hole a whole bunch of people who would have contributed not just to the event and to USC, but to the city around.
She said many of the applicants who were rejected had already registered for the event and paid initial visa fees, but then were denied after short interviews even when they brought extensive documentation, such as bank statements and property records.
