President Donald Trump‘s administration is planning to create three lists, including 43 nations among which is Pakistan, whose citizens would be banned or face selective restrictions from entering the USA.
The new travel ban would be broader than the restrictions imposed during President Trump’s first term, officials familiar with the matter told The New York Times.
A draft list of recommendations developed by diplomatic and security officials suggests a “red” list of 11 countries whose citizens would be flatly barred from entering the United States. They are Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen, officials told the newspaper.
The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive internal deliberations, cautioned that the list had been developed by the State Department several weeks ago and that changes were likely by the time it reached the White House.
Officials at embassies and in regional bureaus at the US State Department and security specialists at other departments and intelligence agencies are reportedly reviewing the draft.
Orange List
The draft proposal also includes an ‘orange’ list that will include nations whose citizens would face travel restrictions but not a complete ban.
In those cases, affluent business travelers might be allowed to enter, but not people traveling on immigrant or tourist visas, reported The New York Times.
Citizens in the Orange list are likely to face mandatory in-person interviews to receive the visa.
The countries in the list include Belarus, Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Russia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Turkmenistan.
After assuming his office on January 20, Trump issued an executive order that required the country’s State Department to identify nations ‘for which vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries. ‘
He had given a 60-day deadline to the department to finish the list.
Since coming to power, the Trump administration has also sent back illegal immigrants to their home countries, including India.
(With inputs from IBNS)
