The New York Times reports that the US plans to ban travel from 43 countries, including Malawi. The Trump team created three ban levels marked by the colors red, orange, and yellow. Malawi landed on the yellow list because of major problems with its passport system. This news comes from high-placed sources speaking to the newspaper.
Red-listed nations face complete travel bans and no visas for their citizens. These eleven countries include Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen. The orange list holds ten countries facing strict visa limits: Belarus, Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Russia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Turkmenistan.
Malawi sits on the yellow list with 21 other countries. These nations have 60 days to fix US concerns about how they handle citizenship papers and passport security. Many yellow-listed countries fail to share traveler information with American officials. Africa makes up most of this group, including Zimbabwe, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, and many others.
Donald Trump promised to limit people coming to America after taking office. He said he wanted to protect the US "from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology or otherwise exploit immigration laws for malevolent purposes." Malawi started having passport troubles after ending its deal with Technobrain in 2021. Hackers broke into the system and stole passport data, according to an unnamed security expert.
These passport problems created real headaches for travelers. Some Malawians received perfectly legal passports from their Department of Migration but were denied visas because officials thought the documents were fake. Others reached their destinations only to be turned away and sent home when machines couldn't read their passports. At least two citizens sued the Department of Immigration because they lost business deals and suffered embarrassment when they couldn't travel with government-issued passports.
Red-listed nations face complete travel bans and no visas for their citizens. These eleven countries include Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen. The orange list holds ten countries facing strict visa limits: Belarus, Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Russia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Turkmenistan.
Malawi sits on the yellow list with 21 other countries. These nations have 60 days to fix US concerns about how they handle citizenship papers and passport security. Many yellow-listed countries fail to share traveler information with American officials. Africa makes up most of this group, including Zimbabwe, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, and many others.
Donald Trump promised to limit people coming to America after taking office. He said he wanted to protect the US "from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology or otherwise exploit immigration laws for malevolent purposes." Malawi started having passport troubles after ending its deal with Technobrain in 2021. Hackers broke into the system and stole passport data, according to an unnamed security expert.
These passport problems created real headaches for travelers. Some Malawians received perfectly legal passports from their Department of Migration but were denied visas because officials thought the documents were fake. Others reached their destinations only to be turned away and sent home when machines couldn't read their passports. At least two citizens sued the Department of Immigration because they lost business deals and suffered embarrassment when they couldn't travel with government-issued passports.
