Trump announces plan to add ‘couple of countries’ to US travel ban
US President Donald Trump said his administration was planning Wednesday to add a “couple of countries” to the contentious list of states whose citizens are subject to travel bans or severe restrictions on entry into the United States.
“We are adding a couple of countries to it. We have to be safe. Our country has to be safe,” he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, adding that the names of the new countries would be announced soon.
Later the Wall Street Journal announced that the administration had planned to add seven countries including Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, and others in Africa and Asia.
The other nations that were considered for new rules were Belarus, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Sudan and Tanzania, it said.
Those countries would not automatically face sweeping travel bans on the US but could see other forms of visas being curtailed, the paper said, citing officials from the administration.
Some of these countries could see their citizens being barred from participating in a visa lottery scheme, against which Trump has railed regularly, saying he would prefer a skilled immigration policy along the lines of the programs in Canada or Australia.
Unlike the nations affected by the current ban, most of the new additions do not consist of populations of the Muslim majority.
