Days after a Reuters report about possible US travel ban on Pakistani and Afghan citizens triggered panic in the two countries, US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce has clarified that March 21 is not the deadline for completion of the US visa policy review process and announcement of travel restrictions on citizens of several countries.
Addressing a press conference on Saturday, Bruce said that March 21 was not the deadline to impose travel restrictions. She said that details of the travel restrictions would come out after completion of the ongoing investigations in the United States. New US travel restrictions are aimed at ensuring that foreign travellers entering the country do not pose a threat to the American national security and public safety.
Last week, Pakistan’s Foreign Office rejected reports of a US travel ban on Pakistani nationals as “speculative”. Commenting on the reports, Foreign Office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said that Islamabad had received no such indication from the United States so far.
“As of now, this is all speculative and hence does not warrant a response,” Khan said in response to a reporter’s question at the weekly media briefing in the federal capital Islamabad.
“So far we have not been given any indication of such a ban on the Pakistan nation,” he elaborated.
He said that Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry and mission in Washington were in contact with the US authorities to obtain further details on the matter.
The Reuters report earlier this month cited sources as saying that the US President Donald Trump’s administration could ban Afghan and Pakistani nationals from entering the United States of America based on a government review of security and vetting risks.
Amid these reports, US authorities detained and denied entry to Pakistan’s Ambassador to Turkmenistan K.K. Ahsan Wagan. However, Pakistan’s Foreign Office later clarified that Wagan was travelling for personal reasons and he was not eligible for diplomatic immunity. He also said that officials were looking into the matter.
On January 20 this year, Trump issued an executive order mandating intensified security vetting for foreigners seeking admission to the United States.
The Trump order directed US cabinet members to submit a list by March 12 of the countries from which travel should be partially or fully suspended due to inadequate vetting and screening information.
The Reuters report had suggested that the new ban could affect tens of thousands of Afghans who had been cleared for resettlement in the US as refugees or on Special Immigrant Visas. The report added that these people were at the risk of Taliban retribution for working for the US during a 20-year war in their home country.