U.S. President Donald Trump has signed a new executive order banning immigrants from six mainly Muslim nations for 90 days.
The countries to be affected by the new order are Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, They are being subjected to a travel ban for the second time.
Iraq has been removed from the list of countries contained in the previous seven-nation order.
The measure, which includes a 120-day ban on all refugees, takes effect on March 16.
The firebrand President Trump had said; “Like every nation, the United States has a right to control who enters our country and to keep out those who would do us harm,”
Trump previously signed an order that banned citizens of seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the US, a development which resulted in chaos and mass protests.
The order was, however, suspended after a court order.
In the new also, Syrian refugees would no longer be indefinitely barred while a 10-day advance notice would help to avoid some of the chaos at US airports that occurred on January 27 when the first executive order was announced without warning.
Trump defended the lack of notice saying that “if the ban were announced with a one week notice, the ‘bad’ would rush into our country during that week”.