Venezuela has hit back over the Trump administration’s travel ban by warning that the US itself is a dangerous place, while Somalia immediately pledged to work with Washington on security issues.
The mixed responses came after Donald Trump signed a ban targeting 12 countries also including Afghanistan, Iran and Yemen in a revival of one of the most controversial measures from his first term.
“Being in the United States is a great risk for anyone, not just for Venezuelans,” Diosdado Cabello, the interior minister in Caracas, said after the announcement, warning citizens against travel there and describing the US government as fascist. “They persecute our countrymen, our people for no reason.”
Dahir Hassan Abdi, the Somali ambassador to the US, said in a statement: “Somalia values its longstanding relationship with the United States and stands ready to engage in dialogue to address the concerns raised.”
Calls early on Thursday to the spokesperson of Myanmar’s military government were not answered. The foreign ministry of Laos did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Reuters reported.
There was no immediate response from Iran, but Jamal Abdi, the president of the National Iranian American Council, said: “The impact of the ban will once again be felt by Americans who were denied the ability to see their loved ones at weddings, funerals, or the birth of a child.”
The move bans all travel to the US by nationals of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
Trump imposed a partial ban on travellers from seven more countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Some temporary work visas from these countries would be allowed, his administration said. The bans would go into effect on Monday 9 June, the White House said.
Trump said the bans were spurred by a makeshift flamethrower attack on a Jewish protest in Colorado that US authorities blamed on a man they said was in the country illegally.
Several countries on the list – Myanmar, Libya, Sudan and Yemen – face continuing civil strife and territory overseen by opposing factions. Sudan has an active war, while Yemen’s war is largely stalemated and Libyan forces remain armed.
For citizens of war-torn countries such as Myanmar, which has been gripped by violence since a military coup in 2021, the announcement is yet another blow. It follows a freeze on refugee resettlements announced by Trump in January, and cuts to scholarship programmes that provided rare opportunities for young people to go abroad and study in safety.
A 21-year-old student from Myanmar, who asked not be named, said his plan to study computer science at a community college in New York was in tatters. “[My] visa appointment is 25 June – but then there was this breaking news in the morning … I felt upset. I couldn’t do anything. This was my only hope, to study in the United States.”
He is now studying in Thailand but his visa will expire in October and he is unsure what he will do next, as it is not safe to return home.
He had been studying medicine in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city, but fled after he was told he would be forcibly conscripted to join the military. “I don’t want to go to the army. Going to the army would be like I’m already dead. My name is on their list so I [had to] sneak out of my country,” he said, adding that his family stayed in Myanmar.
Young people have desperately sought ways to leave Myanmar after the widely loathed military junta announced last year it would impose mandatory conscription to boost its numbers.
Aside from the fear of conscription, people are living with the constant threat of military airstrikes in many areas of the country, the aftermath of a devastating earthquake that struck in March, and sky-high inflation. “Most of the people are jobless, most of the students are hopeless, we have no future. I think our generation is just for sacrifice,” the student said.
The travel ban was yet more bad news for Myanmar refugees in neighbouring Thailand, some of whom had been close to moving to the US when Trump abruptly suspended refugee resettlements earlier this year, said Joe Freeman, Amnesty International’s Myanmar researcher. Since the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, 3.2 million people have been displaced within the country, while 176,400 have fled to neighbouring countries. “Some had already done their orientations for the US. They’ve already had their medical checkups. They’ve already gotten their flight tickets – and then just like [that] the hammer comes down,” Freeman said.
The inclusion of Afghanistan angered some supporters who have worked to resettle its people. The ban makes exceptions for Afghans on special immigrant visas, generally people who worked most closely with the US government during the two-decade-long war there.
Afghanistan was also one of the largest sources of resettled refugees, with about 14,000 arrivals in a 12-month period through September 2024. Trump suspended refugee resettlement on his first day in office.
“To include Afghanistan – a nation whose people stood alongside American service members for 20 years – is a moral disgrace. It spits in the face of our allies, our veterans, and every value we claim to uphold,” said Shawn VanDiver, the president and board chair of #AfghanEvac, a non-profit.
International aid groups and refugee resettlement organisations roundly condemned the new ban. “This policy is not about national security – it is about sowing division and vilifying communities that are seeking safety and opportunity in the United States,” said Abby Maxman, the president of Oxfam America.
