Donald Trump’s administration has added five more countries to the list of nations facing a full ban on travel to the US, and has expanded restrictions to another 15.
The move is part of ongoing efforts to tighten US entry standards for travel and immigration, in what critics say unfairly prevents travel for people from a broad range of countries.
The administration suggested it would expand the restrictions after the arrest of an Afghan national suspect in the shooting of two National Guard troops over Thanksgiving weekend.
That initial ban, announced in June, included Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen and tightened restrictions on visitors from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
The White House on Tuesday said it was expanding the list of countries whose citizens are banned from entering the US to include Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Syria.
It also fully restricted travel on people with Palestinian-Authority-issued travel documents, the latest US travel restriction against Palestinians.
A further 15 countries are also being added to the list of countries facing partial restrictions. They are: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Ivory Coast, Dominica, Gabon, Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
People who already have visas, are lawful permanent residents of the US or have certain visa categories such as diplomats or athletes, or those whose entry into the country is believed to serve the US interest are all exempt from the restrictions.
It was not immediately clear when the new restrictions would take effect, but they apply to both people seeking to travel to the US as visitors or to emigrate there.
The Trump administration said in its announcement that many of the countries from which it was restricting travel had “widespread corruption, fraudulent or unreliable civil documents and criminal records” that made it difficult to vet their citizens for travel to the US.
It also said some countries had high rates of people overstaying their visas, refused to take back their citizens who the US wished to deport or had a “general lack of stability and government control,” which made vetting difficult.
It also cited immigration enforcement, foreign policy and national security concerns for the move.
However the move is likely to attract strong criticism.
“This expanded ban is not about national security but instead is another shameful attempt to demonise people simply for where they are from,” said Laurie Ball Cooper, Vice President of US Legal Programs at the International Refugee Assistance Project.
The Afghan man accused of shooting the two National Guard troops near the White House has pleaded not guilty to murder and assault charges.
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In justifying its decision to clamp down harder on Palestinians, the administration said several “US designated terrorist groups operate actively in the West Bank or Gaza Strip and have murdered American citizens.”
The administration also said that the recent war in those areas had “likely resulted in compromised vetting and screening abilities.”
With agencies
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