Possible reasons behind planned US travel bans

Dar es Salaam. International media has cited security concerns such as terrorism fears and information sharing as the possible reasons behind US President Donald Trump’s planned travel restrictions to Tanzania and six other countries.

On Monday, President Trump’s administration reviewed a recommendation by the country’s Homeland Security Department on the need to expand policies that would ban people from an additional seven countries from travelling to the US.

According to a US-based business news organization Bloomberg, the named countries, whose list is yet to officially released, will probably be given an opportunity to improve security measures such as biometrics, information-sharing and counterterrorism precautions to avoid ultimate inclusion on the list.

Quoting anonymous sources, Bloomberg said President Rump hasn’t specified whether he’ll add all of the countries recommended by Homeland Security. During World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week, Mr Trump told reporters that the US was adding a host of countries on the list of its travel ban.

He said: “We’re adding a couple of countries to it. We have to be safe. Our country has to be safe. You see what’s going on in the world. Our country has to be safe. So we have a very strong travel ban, and we’ll be adding a few countries to it.”

Countries affected, as suggested by State Department, include Tanzania, Belarus, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, and Sudan.

Until yesterday, Tanzania, one of the countries said to have been on the list hadn’t received a formal communication over the ban, as confirmed by the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Mr Emmanuel Muhohela who was quoted by local media.

Countries with large Muslim populations, faced travel restrictions in the early days of Trump’s president, a move that sparked outrage from Democrats and activists. The US Supreme Court upheld a revised version of the ban in June 2018.

Currently, citizens of Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, as well as some Venezuelan officials and their relatives are banned from accessing the U.S. immigrant and non-immigrant visas.