The United States has expanded the controversial travel ban by slapping the restrictions on eight other countries — North Korea, Iran, Chad, Libya, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen and Somalia, read a statement released by the White House on Monday.
Sudan has been dropped off the list from the banned countries, whereas Chad, North Korea and Venezuela are new to the list of affected countries.
The new travel ban will come into effect on October 18.
‘As President, I must act to protect the security and interests of the United States and its people,’ said President Donald Trump in a statement.
Last week, President Trump alluded a ‘tougher’ travel ban, post partially explosion of a bomb on a London subway.
For the last three months, the Trump administration used an executive order to ban foreign nationals of six Muslim-majority countries from entering the US.
Trump ordered the new restrictions on Sunday to replace an expiring measure that had locked him into political and legal battles over what critics alleged was an effort to block Muslims from entry into the country.
‘Making America Safe is my number one priority. We will not admit those into our country we cannot safely vet,’ Trump tweeted.
Other countries included in the previous ban were Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.
Officials said the addition of North Korea and Venezuela demonstrated that the measure was set on the basis of security and was not a ‘Muslim ban’, as detractors have argued.