Trump Administration Considering Travel Ban on 41 Countries Including Pakistan, Bhutan
NEW DELHI, Mar 15: The Donald Trump administration is learnt to be considering issuing travel restrictions for the citizens of dozens of countries, including Afghanistan, Bhutan, Pakistan and Myanmar, as part of a new ban, according to official sources.
As per an internal memo in circulation, it lists a total of 41 countries divided into three separate groups. The first group of 10 countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Cuba and North Korea among others, would be set for a full visa suspension.
In the second group, five countries, including Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, South Sudan and Myanmar would face partial suspensions that would impact tourist and student visas as well as other immigrant visas, with some exceptions.
In the third group, a total of 26 countries, including Belarus, Pakistan, Bhutan and Turkmenistan among others would be considered for a partial suspension of US visa issuance if their governments “do not make efforts to address deficiencies within 60 days,” the memo said.
A US official cautioned that there could be changes on the list and that it was yet to be approved by the administration, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The move harkens back to President Donald Trump’s first-term ban on travellers from seven majority-Muslim nations, a policy that went through several iterations before it was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018.
Trump issued an executive order on January 20 requiring intensified security vetting of any foreigners seeking admission to the US to detect national security threats. That order directed several cabinet members to submit by March 21 a list of countries from which travel should be partly or fully suspended because their “vetting and screening information is so deficient.”
Trump’s directive is part of an immigration crackdown that he launched at the start of his second term. He previewed his plan in an October 2023 speech, pledging to restrict people from the Gaza Strip, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and “anywhere else that threatens our security.”
(Manas Dasgupta)
