Venezuela has hit again over the Trump administration’s journey ban by warning that the US is a harmful place, whereas Somalia instantly vowed to work with Washington on safety considerations.
The combined responses got here after Donald Trump signed a ban concentrating on 12 international locations additionally together with Afghanistan, Iran and Yemen in a revival of one of the vital controversial measures from his first time period.
“Being in america is a good danger for anybody, not only for Venezuelans,” Diosdado Cabello, the inside minister in Caracas, mentioned after the announcement, warning residents towards journey there and describing the US authorities as fascist. “They persecute our countrymen, our folks, for no cause.”
Dahir Hassan Abdi, the Somali ambassador to the US, mentioned: “Somalia values its longstanding relationship with america and stands prepared to have interaction in dialogue to handle the considerations raised.”
Calls early on Thursday to the spokesperson of Myanmar’s navy authorities weren’t answered. The international ministry of Laos didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark, Reuters reported.
There was no quick response from Iran, however Jamal Abdi, the president of the Nationwide Iranian American Council, mentioned: “The impression of the ban will as soon as once more be felt by Individuals who have been denied the power to see their family members at weddings, funerals, or the delivery of a kid.”
The transfer bans all journey to the US by nationals of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
Trump imposed a partial ban on travellers from seven international locations: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Some short-term work visas from these international locations can be allowed, his administration mentioned. The bans would come into impact on Monday 9 June, the White Home mentioned.
The African Union mentioned the ban would hurt “people-to-people ties, academic trade, business engagement and broader diplomatic relations” constructed with the US over a long time. It appealed to Washington to undertake a “consultative strategy and to have interaction in constructive dialogue with the international locations involved”.
Trump mentioned the bans have been spurred by a makeshift flame-thrower assault on a Jewish protest in Colorado that US authorities blamed on a person they mentioned was within the nation illegally.
A number of international locations on the record – Myanmar, Libya, Sudan and Yemen – face persevering with civil strife and territory overseen by opposing factions. Sudan has an lively warfare, whereas Yemen’s warfare is basically stalemated and Libyan forces stay armed.
For residents of war-stricken international locations reminiscent of Myanmar, which has been gripped by violence since a navy coup in 2021, the announcement is one more blow. It follows a freeze on refugee resettlements introduced by Trump in January, and cuts to scholarship programmes that supplied uncommon alternatives for younger folks to go overseas and examine in security.
A 21-year-old scholar from Myanmar, who requested not be named, mentioned his plan to review pc science at a group faculty in New York was in tatters. “[My] visa appointment is 25 June – however then there was this breaking information within the morning … I felt upset. I couldn’t do something. This was my solely hope, to review in america.”
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He’s now finding out in Thailand however his visa will expire in October and he’s uncertain what he’ll do subsequent, as it isn’t secure to return dwelling.
He had been finding out drugs in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest metropolis, however fled after he was advised he can be forcibly conscripted to hitch the navy.
“I don’t wish to go to the military. Going to the military can be like I’m already useless. My identify is on their record so I [had to] sneak out of my nation,” he mentioned, including that his household stayed in Myanmar.
Younger folks have desperately sought methods to depart Myanmar after the extensively loathed navy junta introduced final yr it could impose necessary conscription to spice up its numbers.
Other than the concern of conscription, persons are residing with the fixed menace of navy airstrikes in lots of areas of the nation, the aftermath of a devastating earthquake that struck in March and sky-high inflation.
“Most people are jobless, many of the college students are hopeless, we’ve no future. I feel our technology is only for sacrifice,” the scholar mentioned.
The journey ban was but extra unhealthy information for Myanmar refugees in neighbouring Thailand, a few of whom had been near transferring to the US when Trump abruptly suspended refugee resettlements earlier this yr, mentioned Joe Freeman, Amnesty Worldwide’s Myanmar researcher.
For the reason that 2021 navy coup in Myanmar, 3.2 million folks have been displaced throughout the nation, whereas 176,400 have fled to neighbouring international locations. “Some had already accomplished their orientations for the US. They’ve already had their medical checkups. They’ve already gotten their flight tickets – after which identical to [that] the hammer comes down,” Freeman mentioned.
The inclusion of Afghanistan angered some supporters who had labored to resettle its folks. The ban makes exceptions for Afghans on particular immigrant visas, typically individuals who labored most carefully with the US authorities through the two-decade-long warfare there.
Afghanistan was additionally one of many largest sources of resettled refugees, with about 14,000 arrivals in a 12-month interval by means of September 2024. Trump suspended refugee resettlement on his first day in workplace.
Shawn VanDiver, the president and board chair of #AfghanEvac, a nonprofit, mentioned: “To incorporate Afghanistan – a nation whose folks stood alongside American service members for 20 years – is an ethical shame. It spits within the face of our allies, our veterans, and each worth we declare to uphold,.”
Worldwide help teams and refugee resettlement organisations roundly condemned the bans. “This coverage isn’t about nationwide safety – it’s about sowing division and vilifying communities which might be looking for security and alternative in america,” mentioned Abby Maxman, the president of Oxfam America.
