United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, on Wednesday said that the travel ban imposed by the United States President Donald Trump on immigrant and refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries " is not the way to best protect the US or any other country."
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The US President's executive actions on extreme vetting and visa ban applies to migrants, refugees and US legal residents — green-card holders — from Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Libya and Yemen. There is an indefinite ban on the arrival of Syrian refugees. Trump cited "terrorism concerns" as the reason behind passing the order.
The UN chief said that he hopes that the measure taken by the Trump government against refugees is "removed sooner rather than later." Gueterres made the remarks in response to a question asked by reporters during a press briefing on his travel to Ethiopia, where he attended an African Union summit, Xinhua reports.
The secretary general lauded the African countries, in the Ethipoian capital Addis Abba on Monday, for opening their borders to the refugees and people fleeing from war-ravaged regions, while countries in the other part of the world were closing boundaries and building walls, alluding to America.
"In my opinion, this is not the way to best protect the US or any other country in relation to the serious concerns that existed about the possibility of terrorist infiltration. I don't think this is the effective way to do so," Gueterres said.
"What was lacking was a capacity to have a comprehensive approach to the problem," the UN chief said of the US ban, and added that countries need to review "the very dramatic situations the refugees are facing when they have no chance to reach protection."
"And I think this measure should be removed sooner, rather than later," the UN chief said of the US travel ban.
The secretary general had issued a statement through this spokesperson on Tuesday stating that the refugees fleeing conflict and persecution are entitled to protection. He added that he was concerned at the decisions around the world that have undermined the integrity of the international refugee protection regime.
"Refugees fleeing conflict and persecution are finding more and more borders closed and increasingly restricted access to the protection they need and are entitled to receive, according to international refugee law," the statement said.
