Pakistan and Afghanistan could be added to new US travel ban

President Trump has ordered a review of visa-approval processes and 'enhanced vetting' of would-be visitors

Lorries carry Afghan refugees towards the Torkham border crossing after Pakistan ordered illegal immigrants to leave, in November 2023. AFP

The US could block people from Pakistan and Afghanistan from entering America as soon as next week, as President Donald Trump looks to revive and may expand the so-called Muslim ban from his first term.

Shawn VanDiver, the head of #AfghanEvac, a coalition of groups that co-ordinates evacuation and resettlement of Afghans, said the White House would receive a report on the issue on March 12. Mr Trump in January ordered a review of visa-approval processes and the “enhanced vetting” of would-be visitors to the US.

“We expect [the Trump administration] to take action very quickly. There are several countries on the list, the nationals of which will not be able to come here,” Mr VanDiver said on X after visiting members of Congress on March 5 to lobby them to support Afghans awaiting travel to the US.

“We hope that refugees would be exempt from this ban … but no final decision has been made yet. We are told, however, that Afghanistan, Pakistan and several others are on the list as full suspension countries.”

A source told The National that Pakistani officials remain optimistic that Pakistan will not be included on the list, especially given recent remarks by Mr Trump and other senior US officials praising Islamabad for its role in the capture of Mohammad Sharifullah, a suspected senior planner in the suicide bombing at Kabul airport in August 2021 that killed 13 American troops and about 170 Afghan civilians.

“I want to thank especially the government of Pakistan for helping arrest this monster,” Mr Trump said during an address to Congress on Tuesday. “This was a very momentous day for those 13 families.”

Mr Trump's executive order in January instructed agencies to identify “countries throughout the world for which vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries”.

The Pakistan embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A State Department representative said it does not comment on internal deliberations or communications.

Three sources told Reuters that a new travel ban could bar people from Afghanistan and Pakistan from entering the US as soon as next week, based on a government review of countries' security and vetting risks.

Quoting two officials, The New York Times reported the Trump administration is finalising a new travel ban that would be broader than under his first term.

On Mr Trump's first day in office in 2017, he ordered the first version of the so-called Muslim travel ban, which affected citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The move abruptly stranded hundreds of travellers already in mid-air whose visas became void, and created chaos at airports. The measure was challenged in court and had to be amended several times until the US Supreme Court upheld the last version in 2018.

The new ban could affect tens of thousands of Afghans who have been cleared for resettlement in the US as refugees or on Special Immigrant Visas because they are at risk of Taliban retribution for working for the US during the 20-year war in their home country.

According to the US Census Bureau, there were an estimated 629,946 US residents of Pakistani descent in 2021, but more recent estimates suggest the Pakistani population in America could be more than one million. More than 10,000 Pakistani higher education students are studying in the US.

About 200,000 Afghans have been approved for US resettlement or have pending US refugee and Special Immigrant Visa applications.

They have been stranded in Afghanistan and nearly 90 other countries – including about 20,000 in Pakistan – since January 20, when Mr Trump ordered a 90-day freeze on refugee admissions and foreign aid that funds their flights.