Newly Added Countries to US Travel Ban React

The United States President Donald Trump’s latest decision to expand the travel ban, adding six more countries to it, has caused debate in the countries affected and further.

Nigeria, Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan, and Tanzania, which countries were added to the US travel ban, irked with the decision, have gone to further lengths to deal with it. 

Trump’s order, that has been signed on Friday, and which will come into force on February 22, will suspend immigrant visas for citizens of Nigeria, Myanmar, Eritrea, and Kyrgyzstan, while the citizens from Sudan and Tanzania will also be barred from the US diversity visa program.

Eritrea and Kyrgyzstan denounce Trump’s expanded US travel ban

 Eritrea and Kyrgyzstan have denounced Trump’s ban finding it decision controversial and discriminating. 

The American president’s order has been considered as a political move by the Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh Mohammed.

President Mohammed said on Saturday that the ban would hurt the country’s relations with the US.

“We find this move unacceptable. We will, however, not expel the US ambassador,” the minister highlighted.

Nigeria to address the issues that prompted the ban

In the meantime, Nigeria’s government said it has created a committee to address the issues that prompted the ban.

“Nigeria remains committed to maintaining productive relations with the United States and other international allies especially on matters of global security,” a Nigerian presidential statement said.

Nigerians make up by far the largest population of African immigrants living in the US, numbering about 327,000. Cities with thriving Nigerian communities will be particularly hard hit, including Dallas, Chicago, Baltimore, Atlanta, Phoenix, and Houston, the latter of which has the largest Nigerian population outside Brazil and Africa.

The Trump administration has been looking to decrease immigration from Nigeria for a long time now, dating back to a now-infamous meeting in the Oval Office in June 2017. Trump told his advisers at the time that Nigerians who set foot in the US would never “go back to their huts” in Africa, according to the New York Times report.

The reason behind Myanmar’s travel ban from the United States.

The decision to include Myanmar in the expanded list may be in response to the Rohingya crisis on Myanmar’s western border, where the military government stands accused of carrying out a genocide against the minority-Muslim population. The violence and unrest have ignited a refugee crisis over the border in Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, Tanzania said it has not been officially notified by the United States about the travel ban for their country.

The previous version of Trump’s travel ban which included fewer countries, has been taken to several courts, which stated that “it was illegal to stop people from coming into the country only because they have a certain religious preference.” Yet the Justices of the Supreme Court argued that it was not discriminating towards a particular religion because it did not include only Muslim countries, so they upheld it.

The current travel ban applies to Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia as well as North Korea and Venezuela.