Donald Trump is planning to add seven countries to his US travel ban, including Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, according to reports.
The president told the Wall Street Journal in an interview from Davos, Switzerland, that he wants to extend the controversial ban, but declined to name the countries to be added to the list.
The paper and Politico both reported that the countries likely to be targeted are Nigeria, Sudan, Belarus, Myanmar, Tanzania, Kyrgyzstan and Eritrea.
An announcement may come as soon as Monday, on the third anniversary of the introduction of the original ban that targeted majority-Muslim countries.
New rules impacting those countries may not take the form of a blanket ban on travel to the US, but could include restrictions on government officials or certain types of visas.
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley would not confirm the plan. He praised the current travel ban for making the country safer.
“The travel ban has been profoundly successful in protecting our country and raising the security baseline around the world,” he said.
“While there are no new announcements at this time, common sense and national security both dictate that if a country wants to fully participate in US immigration programmes, they should also comply with all security and counter-terrorism measures — because we do not want to import terrorism or any other national security threat into the United States.”
The original travel ban denied visas to citizens of seven countries, though it went through a series of legal challenges that forced modifications.
The current version restricts travel to the US for some citizens from majority-Muslim nations Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, in addition to North Korea and Venezuela.
Source: Independent
