Donald Trump has added five new countries to the US travel ban list, along with placing travel restrictions on two nations competing at next year’s World Cup – Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire.
The list already consisted of 12 nations whose nationals were banned from entering the United States, but the US president has now added five more to the full ban list.
The White House said the restrictions were intended “to protect the security of the United States” and will come into force on 1 January.
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Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Syria have all been added to the list of full restrictions and entry limitations.
Meanwhile Laos and Sierra Leone have been upgraded from a partial ban to a full ban.
Holders of a Palestinian Authority passport have also been banned, as described in the US policy as a document-based restriction.
At the same time, a raft of countries have been given partial bans, including Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, two nations set to compete at the 2026 World Cup, the Guardian reports.
The reasoning provided by the White House for imposing the bans are visa overstay rates. For B1 or B2 visitor visas of the type travelling fans would need to enter the country for the World Cup, the overstay rates listed are about 4% for Senegal and 8% for Côte d’Ivoire, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
This means there are now four World Cup participants on the travel ban list: Côte d’Ivoire, Haiti, Iran and Senegal.
This is the third time Trump has imposed a travel ban.
Trump has tightened immigration control on grounds of alleged failures in screening and vetting systems oversea.
The full lists are as follows:
Countries with full restrictions:
- Afghanistan
- Burkina Faso
- Burma
- Chad
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Haiti
- Iran
- Laos
- Libya
- Mali
- Niger
- Republic of the Congo
- Sierra Leone
- Somalia
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- Syria
- Yemen
- Individuals travelling on Palestinian Authority issued or endorsed travel documents are also subject to a full suspension of entry
Countries with partial restrictions:
- Angola
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Benin
- Burundi
- Côte d’Ivoire
- Cuba
- Dominica
- Gabon
- The Gambia
- Malawi
- Mauritania
- Nigeria
- Senegal
- Tanzania
- Togo
- Tonga
- Venezuela
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Special case:
Turkmenistan (restrictions remain for immigrants but have been lifted for non-immigrant visas)