Senegal Women’s Basketball Team Visas Rejected As U.S. Escalates Immigration Issues
The Senegal Women’s Basketball team will not be attending a training camp as planned in the United States after some of its players and staff had their visas rejected.
The Senegalese players expected to appear at the 10-day training camp from June 22 to July 3. However, these plans were forfeited as the U.S. ramps up immigration control. The Senegalese Basketball Federation confirmed on June 20 that the issue was due to the unapproved visas. According to The Athletic, the visa restrictions impacted five players, six staffers, and one ministerial delegation.
The news follows expanded travel bans for multiple countries, including several African nations. However, the current list of countries with restricted travel to the U.S. does not include Senegal. The unfortunate update resulted in Senegal’s Prime minister also releasing a statement, emphasizing the U.S. “refusal” to grant visas to the players and staff.
“Informed of the refusal to issue Visas to multiple members of the national women’s basketball team of Senegal, I gave instruction to the Ministry of Sports to cancel, purely and simply, the ten-day preparation program initially set to be in the United States of America,” Senegal Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko said in a statement on Facebook.
The U.S. had originally granted exemptions for the World Cup, Olympics, and any “other major sporting event.” However, it remains plausible that America did not consider the training camp as “major” enough.
The Trump Administration also reportedly has further plans to add 36 more countries to its growing travel ban, which major outlets have confirmed would include Senegal. The news comes as unrest globally and internally brews against the administration’s handling of immigrants. The U.S. government remains in opposition to California’s leadership over its implementation of ICE raids in Los Angeles.
However, other countries have taken advantage of America’s rising hostility on the global stage. The prime minister praised China for offering grants to support to team and their Olympic prospects during this time.
“I would like to express my profound gratitude to the People’s Republic of China, who have agreed to several tens of grants for the preparation of our athletes along with their supervisors, with the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar 2026 in mind,” Sonko said.
The training camp will instead take place in Dakar, Senegal as the team prepares for the Women’s AfroBasket. Senegal has won 11 titles, the most in the championship tournament’s history.
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