President Donald Trump on Sunday slapped new travel restrictions on citizens from North Korea, Venezuela and Chad, expanding to eight the list of countries covered by his original travel bans that have been derided by critics and challenged in court, Reuters reported.
Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Somalia were left on the list of affected countries in a new proclamation issued by the president. Restrictions on citizens from Sudan were lifted.
The measures help fulfill a campaign promise Trump made to tighten U.S. immigration procedures and align with his “America First” foreign policy vision. Unlike the president’s original bans, which had time limits, this one is open-ended.
“Making America Safe is my number one priority. We will not admit those into our country we cannot safely vet,” the president said in a tweet shortly after the proclamation was released.
The current ban, enacted in March, was set to expire on Sunday evening. The new restrictions are slated to take effect on October 18 and resulted from a review after Trump’s original travel bans sparked international outrage and legal challenges.
Why is Chad on the list?
This is a “much more targeted” ban, and – according to analysts – is solely based on a review of the way governments have co-operated with the U.S. vetting and counter terrorism efforts.
In the previous ban, the restricted countries were predominantly Muslim – a fact that led to Trump being widely-criticised for implementing the order. Experts suggest that North Korea is on the list due to heightened political tensions, and Venezuela due to political uncertainty.
But Chad – the inclusion of the central African country has many analysts scratching their heads. There are known jihadi groups believed to be operating within the country (Boko Haram, and affiliates of ISIS and al-Qaida), but these groups also control territory in countries such as Nigeria, Egypt, Afghanistan and a number of countries not on the list.
In the most recent State Department Country Reports on Terrorism, Chad “scored” mostly positive for counter terrorism efforts and has even previously hosted U.S.-organised military exercises and received significant U.S. military aid.
Even Trump’s order describes Chad as an “important and valuable counter terrorism partner,” though it notes that it “does not adequately share public-safety and terrorism-related information and fails to satisfy at least one key risk criterion.”
Experts are suggesting that it could be to a recent failure to reveal counter terrorism-related intelligence – although this is yet to be confirmed.
There has been no official comment made by the Chad government.
