US imposes travel ban on Palestinian Authority passport holders, five more countries

A Palestinian woman shows her passport to the camera as she waits at the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip on September 18, 2013. (Mohammed Abed/AFP)
A Palestinian woman shows her passport to the camera as she waits at the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip on September 18, 2013. (Mohammed Abed/AFP)

US President Donald Trump has expanded a travel ban to the US by barring nationals of six more countries, including Syria, as well as Palestinian Authority passport holders, from entering the United States.

In a social media posting, a White House account says that Trump, who has long campaigned to restrict immigration, was acting “to protect the security of the United States.”

The move is part of ongoing efforts to tighten US entry standards for travel and immigration, and follows the arrest of an Afghan national suspect in the shooting of two National Guard troops over Thanksgiving weekend.

In addition to barring PA passport holders, the Republican administration announces that citizen of Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Syria are to be barred from entering the US.

An additional 15 countries are also being added to the list of countries facing partial restrictions: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Dominica, Gabon, Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

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