McCully slams MFat over travel ban uncertainty

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully has hauled in his chief executive for a telling-off over the delay in confirming the impact of a United States travel ban on Kiwis.

McCully called a meeting with Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFat) chief Brook Barrington yesterday morning.

“I conveyed unambiguously the expectations that I have about the ministry’s management of difficult issues with the United States system during this transition period,” the minister told the Herald.

MFat was unable to clarify with the US Administration whether New Zealand dual nationals were captured by US President Donald Trump’s travel ban until last night — five days after the policy came into effect.

That left Prime Minister Bill English in the dark about where NZ stood.

McCully said the US was undergoing a major transition that would “make life more complex for us”.

The ministry needed to “manage [itself] through that process with a high level of professionalism”.

McCully said he did not want to single out any individual for criticism.

“I’m not going personalise this — I am just owning up to the fact that the Foreign Ministry’s performance on this issue has been inadequate.”

The US Embassy in Wellington yesterday confirmed that dual citizens of NZ and one of the seven “banned” Muslim-majority countries would be able to travel to the US.

An embassy spokeswoman said it would be implementing the executive order, which suspends entry into the US for nationals of Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Somalia, Libya and Yemen for 90 days. “[It] does not restrict the travel of dual nationals, so long as they hold the passport of an unrestricted country and possess a valid US visa. They may resume travel to the United States.”

Before Tuesday night, the embassy had said nationals of the seven countries would not be permitted to enter the US, even if they were also Kiwi citizens. That was despite Britain, Australia and Canada saying they had been given exemptions for their dual citizens. New Zealand was the only Five Eyes country that had not had an exemption confirmed.

Yesterday morning’s shift of policy in New Zealand was part of a worldwide shift, rather than a specific exemption for New Zealand.

Dual nationals of NZ and Yemen, Libya and Somalia were also still eligible for the visa waiver programme, the embassy said yesterday.

However, nationals of Iraq, Iran, Syria and Sudan were already blocked from using the waiver. The scheme allows 90-day business or tourist trips to the US without a visa. As of 2015, anyone who had visited those countries since 2011 was also ineligible for visa waiver.

Prime Minister Bill English yesterday welcomed the US clarification.