World attacks Trump clamps

Travel ban on Muslim countries discriminatory, leaders say

AGLOBAL backlash against US President Donald Trump’s immigration curbs gathered pace yesterday as several countries, including longstanding American allies, criticised the measures as discriminatory and divisive.

Governments from London and Berlin to Jakarta and Tehran spoke out against Trump’s order to put a four-month hold on allowing refugees into the United States and temporarily ban travellers from Syria and six other Muslim-majority countries, which he said would help protect Americans from terrorism.

In Germany – which has taken in large numbers of people fleeing the Syrian civil war – Chancellor Angela Merkel said the global fight against terrorism was no excuse for the measures.

“It does not justify putting people of a specific background or faith under general suspicion,” she said.

Merkel expressed her concerns to Trump during a phone call and reminded him that the Geneva Conventions required the international community to take in war refugees on humanitarian grounds.

Merkel’s sentiments were echoed in Paris and London.

“Terrorism knows no nationality. Discrimination is no response,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said.

His British counterpart, Boris Johnson, tweeted: “Divisive and wrong to stigmatise because of nationality.”

Along with Syria, the US ban affects travellers with passports from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

Trump said his order, which indefinitely bans refugees from Syria, was not a Muslim ban, though he would seek to prioritise Christian refugees fleeing the wartorn country.

Washington’s Arab allies, including the Gulf states and Egypt, were mostly silent.

The government in Iraq, which is allied with Washington in the battle against ultra-hardline Islamist group Islamic State (IS) and hosts more than 5 000 US troops, also did not comment.

But some politicians said Iraq should retaliate with similar measures against the US.

Trump’s executive order on Friday took effect immediately, wreaking havoc and confusion for wouldbe travellers with passports from the seven countries and plunging America’s immigration system into chaos.

US civil rights and faith groups, activists and Democratic politicians vowed to fight the order.

The Tehran government vowed to respond in kind to the US ban on visitors from Iran, but Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter yesterday that Americans who already held Iranian visas could enter the country.

“Unlike the US, our decision is not retroactive,” Zarif said.

“All with valid Iranian visa will be gladly welcomed.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country welcomed those fleeing war and persecution, even as Canadian airlines said they would turn back US-bound passengers to comply with the immigration ban on people from the Muslim-majority countries. – Reuters