After US President Donald Trump's executive order banning seven Muslim-majority countries last Friday, the Kuwaiti government has told would-be migrants from the five banned nations to not apply for visas, as it is worried about the possible migration of radical Islamic terrorists, Sputnik International reported.
Under the executive order signed by Trump, refugees from all over the world will be denied US entry for 120 days while all immigration from so-called "countries with terrorism concerns" will be suspended for 90 days. The countries included in the US ban are Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.
Kuwait was the only nation to prohibit the entry of Syrian nationals prior to Trump's executive action. Kuwait City previously issued a suspension of visas for all Syrians in 2011.
imgDonald-Trump54
A group of terrorists bombed a Shia mosque in 2015, killing 27 Kuwaiti nationals. A 2016 survey conducted by Expat Insider ranked Kuwait one of the worst nations in the world for expatriates, primarily due to its strict cultural laws.
As a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Kuwait has become embroiled in escalated tensions between the GCC and Iran. Washington has been a guarantor of GCC security since the early 1990s, according to a Congressional Research Service brief.
Observers have pointed out that most of the nations on Trump's list have substantial Muslim populations and are experiencing some form of economic or military conflict.
PAKISTAN ENVOY DENIES VISA BAN BY KUWAIT
Pakistan on Wednesday rejected reports of a visa ban by Kuwait on its nationals.
Pakistani ambassador in Kuwait Ghulam Dastagir has termed news on social media about the ban as baseless, adding that similar news had cropped up in 2011, Geo News reported.
On Wednesday, IANS quoted Russian news agency Sputnik International to say that Kuwait has banned nationals from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It said the ban included on tourism, visit and trade visas as well as visas sponsored by spouses.
The ban was attributed to the "difficult security conditions" in the five countries by the Russian agency.
The news could not be immediately verified.
UAE SAYS TRUMP TRAVEL BAN AN INTERNAL AFFAIR, MOST MUSLIMS UNAFFECTED
The United Arab Emirates' foreign minister said on Wednesday President Donald Trump's travel ban on citizens of seven mainly Muslim countries was an internal affair not directed at any faith, a more measure reaction than others from the region.
Trump's order affecting Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen has triggered protests across the United States and beyond.
But Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed said most Muslims and Muslim countries were not included in the ban and the named states faced "challenges" that they needed to address.
"The United States has taken a decision that is within the American sovereign decision," Sheikh Abdullah said at a joint news conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Abu Dhabi.
"There are attempts to give the impression that this decision is directed against a particular religion, but what proves this talk to be incorrect first is what the U.S. administration itself says ... that this decision is not directed at a certain religion."
The UAE, a major oil exporter, is a close ally of the United States and a member of the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamist militants in Syria.
Sheikh Abdullah gave a guarded welcome to another Trump initiative, a proposal for humanitarian safe zones in Syria.
imgDonald-Trump47
"If the aim behind these areas is humanitarian and temporary and under an international umbrella, I think this is a basis we can work on," he said.
"But I think that it is still early to decide what our final stance toward these zones is before we hear from the new U.S. administration the ideas and develop that further," he added.
