World reacts to Trump’s travel ban, hits several nations mired in conflict | Donald Trump News
Donald Trump has signed an executive order banning citizens from 12 countries from entering the country in a move he said was to protect the US from “foreign terrorists”, mirroring a contentious policy from his first term as United States president.
As part of Trump’s intensified crackdown on immigration, a cornerstone of his previous time in the White House and on the campaign trail, he announced on Wednesday that nationals from 12 countries – Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen – will be banned.
Seven countries will also be subject to partial restrictions, which will mean they will no longer be able to apply for immigrant or non-immigrant temporary visas. However, some temporary work visas will still be allowed.
Trump cited an attack in Boulder, Colorado, where a man threw a petrol bomb into a crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators, as proof of the need for immigration curbs.
“The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted,” Trump said in a video message from the Oval Office posted on X.
“We don’t want them,” he added.
On June 1, police arrested a man who threw Molotov cocktails towards a group of people attending a rally for the release of captives taken from Israel on October 7, 2023 and held in Gaza.
Suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman was charged with a federal hate crime, as well as an array of state charges, according to an affidavit by the US Department of Justice. Soliman is an Egyptian national who has also lived in Kuwait.
Neither of these countries, both of which the US has strong, long-term relations with, are on Trump’s list of banned countries.
This latest travel ban follows Trump’s executive order during his first term, in which he banned nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries, also known as the “Muslim ban,” in 2017.
Seven of the countries on the new list of those banned also have Muslim-majority populations and several are beset by ongoing conflicts.
Despite the new suspensions, the ban will not apply to existing visa holders, foreign diplomats, athletes and their teams, among other exemptions.
The ban is expected to come into effect on June 9 at 12:01 am EDT (04:01 GMT).
Here’s how the world has reacted to the ban.
African Union
The AU, which has seven of the 12 nations on the travel ban list, said the ban would harm “people-to-people ties, educational exchange, commercial engagement, and broader diplomatic relations” that were built with the US over past decades.
“The African Union Commission respectfully calls upon the US
administration to consider adopting a more consultative approach and to engage in constructive dialogue with the countries concerned,” the bloc said in a statement.
Oxfam America
President of Oxfam America, Abby Maxman, said the decision was not about “national security”. “It is about sowing division and vilifying communities that are seeking safety and opportunity in the United States,” Maxman said.
Somalia
The Somali ambassador to the US, Dahir Hassan Abdi, said in a statement that Mogadishu “values its longstanding relationship with the United States”. “[Somalia] stands ready to engage in dialogue to address the concerns raised,” Abdi said.
Venezuela
Interior minister Diosdado Cabello described the ban as a “great risk for anyone, not just Venezuelans”. “They persecute our countrymen, our people, for no reason,” he said. Venezuelan migrants in the US have been targeted by the Trump administration for deportation to El Salvador, many on unproven allegations of being gang members.
