United States President Donald Trump could significantly expand his travel ban list in the next few weeks to include 36 more countries, 26 of which are in Africa, US media reports say, citing internal government documents.
With 10 countries already included on Trump’s initial list, citizens of 36 of Africa’s 54 nations could now be banned, fully or partially, from entering the US if the new list takes effect. This would make Africa the most-banned region of the world when it comes to travelling to the US.
The visa bans are part of Trump’s promised immigration crackdown, which has been in motion since he took office in January, and which has already seen citizens of 19 countries in Africa and the Middle East banned or severely restricted from entering the US.
In a memorandum sent to US representatives in the affected countries on June 14, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the governments of those countries had been given 60 days to meet standards dictated by the Department of State. The memo also requested that those countries provide an initial action plan in line with meeting those measures by June 18.
That deadline has now passed. It is unclear if any of those countries have submitted the requested plans of action.
Of the 36 new countries mentioned in the reported memo, 26 are in Africa: Angola; Benin; Burkina Faso; Cabo Verde; Cambodia; Cameroon; the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC); Djibouti; Ethiopia; Egypt; Gabon; The Gambia; Ghana; Ivory Coast; Liberia; Malawi; Mauritania; Niger; Nigeria; Sao Tome and Principe; Senegal; South Sudan; Tanzania; Uganda; Zambia; and Zimbabwe.
Others on the list are in the Caribbean, Asia, the Pacific and the Middle East: Antigua and Barbuda, Bhutan, Cambodia, Dominica, Kyrgyzstan, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Syria, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
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