Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Anna Moneymaker
Topics: Donald Trump, Immigration, World News, Sport, US News, Politics
William Morgan
Topics: Donald Trump, Immigration, World News, Sport, US News, Politics
Hordes of soccer fans are set to descend on the US this year for the largest sporting event on Earth, the FIFA World Cup.
However, the residents of dozens of countries may well be unable to attend due to President Trump's sweeping travel bans.
With over 3,000,000 people likely to attend the matches in person and over 1 billion watching along at home, the tournament promises to put the continent under the spotlight with games hosted across Mexico, Canada, and the US.
But any fans of the sport hoping to attend a match in America will have to meet the stricter entry requirements that have been implemented over the past 12 months, with minor criminal records and overly political content on their phone potentially barring many from entering.
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Making matters worse for international World Cup attendees, this week the Trump administration extended its growing list of countries that have had all migration visa applications frozen.
This ban could include a number of countries whose residents would normally attend their international games, but these supporters are unlikely to get in under the current travel rules.
Qualifying countries that could face issues entering the country because of this travel ban list are: Morocco, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Egypt, Iran, Cape Verde, Uruguay, Senegal, Algeria, Jordan, Algeria, Uzbekistan, Colombia, Ghana, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Iraq and Brazil.
It is not yet known if the ban will effect those seeking a non-immigration, business or temporary tourist visa. However, demand for such visas is sure to increase around the time of the World Cup - whether or not those will be accepted by those on the ban list remains to be seen.
A cable sent to embassy staff around the world has instructed them to carry out additional screening measures to ensure that anyone applying for a travel visa does not overstay their welcome.
"With the uncovering of massive public benefits fraud across the United States, the Trump administration is laser-focused on eliminating and preventing fraud in public benefits programs," the cable read.
But four of these countries are likely to face a fairly comprehensive ban on supporters entering the US.
In December, competing nations Senegal and Ivory Coast were added to this extensive travel ban list, which does not affect the teams and their players, but will prevent supporters from those countries attending their games in the US.
A Senegal fan told the Associated Press: “I don’t know why the American president would want teams from certain countries not to take part. If that’s the case, they shouldn’t agree to host the World Cup.
“It’s up to the United States to provide the conditions, the means, and the resources to allow the qualified countries so everyone can go and support their team.”
Supporters from two other countries who qualified for this year's World Cup, Iran and Haiti, have also been barred and added to the extensive travel ban list. Both nations were barred during the first wave of bans.
The Trump administration has now stopped 75 nationalities from immigrating to the US in total, which is more than a third of the countries on Earth. It is not clear if normal travel visas will also be restricted for these countries.
Unless an exception is made for the duration of the World Cup, many of these teams will be forced to play with reduced crowd support as only US nationals from those countries would be able to come along and fly their banner.
The State Department has justified this ever-expanding group of nations whose residents cannot move to the US by saying that consulates around the world had to update their 'screening and vetting deficiencies' before any countries are taken off the list.