Trump s travel ban on 12 countries goes into effect early Monday

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump’s order banning citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States goes into effect at 12.01am Eastern Time (12.01pm, Singapore time) on June 9, a move the president promulgated to protect the country from “foreign terrorists”.

The countries affected by the latest travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

The entry of people from seven other countries – Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela – will be partially restricted.

Mr Trump, a Republican, said the countries subject to the most severe restrictions were determined to harbour a “large-scale presence of terrorists”, fail to cooperate on visa security, have an inability to verify travelers’ identities, as well as inadequate record-keeping of criminal histories and high rates of visa overstays in the United States.

He cited the June 1 incident in Boulder, Colorado, in which an Egyptian national tossed a petrol bomb into a crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators as an example of why the new curbs are needed.

But Egypt is not part of the travel ban.

The travel ban forms part of Mr Trumps policy to restrict immigration into the United States and is reminiscent of a similar move in his first term when he barred travellers from seven Muslim-majority nations.

Officials and residents in countries whose citizens will soon be banned expressed dismay and disbelief.

Chad President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said he had instructed his government to stop granting visas to US citizens in response to Mr Trumps action.

“Chad has neither planes to offer nor billions of dollars to give, but Chad has its dignity and its pride,” he said in a Facebook post, referring to countries such as Qatar, which gifted the US a luxury