

In 2019, Kyrgyzstan was feted around the world for reaching a historic landmark — the end of statelessness.
Stateless people have no legal nationality in any country. Like many
former Soviet countries, millions in Kyrgyzstan had been left without
passports or a nationality at the end of the Cold War. Without a
nationality, they could not vote, travel or access many of their rights.
The lawyer who spearheaded the government push to end statelessness in Kyrgyzstan, Azizbek Ashurov, won this year’s prestigious Nansen award,
given out each year to a human rights advocate working with refugees,
stateless persons or displaced persons. (The award is named for Fridtjof
Nansen,
a Norwegian explorer and refugee advocate who invented the “Nansen
passport” which helped millions of refugees following World War One, for
which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.)
It’s worth noting that a recent report estimates that the United States may have as many as 200,000 stateless persons
about which it is doing nothing. Yet the US government has determined
that Kyrgyz people, including the human rights lawyers who worked so
hard and spent many long hours on horseback to make sure people inside
their own country can enjoy their rights, pose such a threat to
Americans that they must be banned.
Also
on the ban is Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest and most dynamic
countries and home to award-winning author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who
wrote a book about the Nigerian-American experience. Why Nigeria? The US government has vaguely hinted that there may be “nefarious actors” in Nigeria, but each day they ignore the nefarious actor in the White House.
Also on the ban, Tanzania, home to some of the top travel destinations in the world, including Mt. Kilimanjaro. Apparently, the government of Tanzania was not informed in
advance that it was being added to the ban, nor has the Trump
administration made it clear why Tanzania was added to the list, or what
can be done to get off the list. In this, Tanzania’s experience is not
unlike that of James Comey, the former FBI director who found out he was
fired on TV.
Notably, while many Americans are calling this an “update” to the “Muslim ban,” most Tanzanians are not Muslims,
only adding to the frightening arbitrariness of the new list. Over the
next months and years, millions around the world will be wondering, “why Nigeria?” “why Kyrgyzstan?”
and, perhaps, “why not my country?” or, “is my country next?” Chad
somehow got itself removed from the list, making me wonder if the Kempinski hotel, once owned by Gaddafi, will soon be renamed the “Trump N’djamena Hotel.”
In
a few days, the Senate will vote to acquit Trump of his crimes, not
because he’s not guilty, but because Trump can do whatever he wants. And
what he wants is to get re-elected. So expect more travel restrictions
in the months to come.
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