Trump bans citizens of Sudan, Chad Iran, nine others from visiting U.S.

U.S President, Donald Trump, has signed a ban on travel to the US from 12 countries, namely Afghanistan, Haiti and Iran in a bid to “protect Americans from dangerous foreign actors”

There are an additional seven countries whose nationals face partial travel restrictions, and these includes Cuba and Venezuela

The BBC reports that there were some exemptions, including athletes travelling for major sporting events, some Afghan nationals and dual nationals with citizenship in unaffected countries

“We don’t want them,” Trump said as he announced the ban, while also citing the Colorado attack on Sunday.

The proclamation echoes an order from Trump’s first term in 2017, when he announced a ban on travel from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US

The travel ban, which comes into effect on 9 June, fulfils a promise Trump made during his 2024 election campaign, and is likely to draw swift legal challenges.

From Monday, citizens from 12 countries – Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen – will be banned from travelling to the US.

Those from another seven countries – Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela – will be subject to a partial ban.

For most countries included on the list, the White House cites a mixture of visa overstay rates and political instability.

The sole reason mentioned for the bans affecting Congo-Brazzaville, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Burundi, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo and Turkmenistan, for example, are the percentage of people overstaying their US visa.

Other reasons frequently cited include nations previously not accepting “removable nationals”, criticism of the authorities which issue passports in the country, or an inability to access criminal records of migrants.

Security concerns were also cited in the proclamation.

The White House accuses Iran and Cuba of being a “state sponsor of terrorism”, says there is a “historical terrorist presence” in Libya, and calls Somalia “a terrorist safe haven”.

Meanwhile for Haiti, the proclamation says “hundreds of thousands of illegal Haitian aliens flooded into the United States during the Biden administration”, which it says “harms American communities”.

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