The two African countries affected by the new travel ban announced by US President Donald Trump on Monday have attacked the move that places a 90-day ban on their citizens alongside those from four other mainly Muslim countries.
According to Trump administration officials the order was presented as a means to strengthen US national security against terror threats.
But On Tuesday Somalia and Sudan said the new ban which takes effect March 16 was ‘unjustified’ and Somalia’s president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed – a dual US-Somali citizen – expressed his concern over the new ban.
He said the estimated 150,000 Somalis in the US ‘have contributed to the US economy and the US society in different ways, and we have to talk about what the Somali people have contributed rather than a few people who may cause a problem’.
Sudan’s ministry of foreign affairs, meanwhile, spoke of its ‘deep regret and discontent’ that a new ban was issued.
‘Sudanese citizens have never been involved in any crimes or terrorism in the United States’, the statement said.
What the order means
- Citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, six of the countries on the original 27 January order, are again subject to a 90-day travel ban
- Iraq has been taken off the list because its government has boosted visa screening and data sharing
- Refugees already approved by the State Department can enter the US. An indefinite ban on all Syrian refugees is also lifted
- Green Card holders (legal permanent residents of the US) from the named countries will not be affected
- Priority is not given to religious minorities, unlike the previous directive
