President Donald Trump's executive order to close American borders to travellers from some Muslim-majority countries has caused chaos and protests at major airports worldwide as many were barred from boarding flights to the U.S. or were pulled off planes overseas.
By Saturday evening, there were 11 people in detention at New York City's John F Kennedy airport who had arrived from Iraq and other barred countries, according to two Democratic members of Congress, Jerry Nadler and Nydia Velazquez, who joined protests at the airport, reports the Guardian.
According to representatives of immigration and civil rights group who spoke to reporters on a group call, other travellers were being held in Atlanta, Houston and Detroit.
Even pre-approved refugees, students and workers holding visas and residency green cards were barred from flights to the US, according to reports emerging from Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Cairo and other cities across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Trump's executive order, signed on Friday, temporarily banned refugees from around the world, blocked Syrian refugees indefinitely and halted entry for 90 days for people from seven predominantly Muslim countries: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia.
According to a state department spokesman, travellers who have dual nationality between a country on the list and another non-US country have also been barred from entering the U.S. for 90 days.
The order provides for giving priority to religious minorities in those Muslim countries. Trump has said the US will in future prioritise Christian refugees.
Melanie Nezer, vice-president of HIAS, a US organization that helps to resettle refugees who had passed through the difficult US vetting process, said 2,000 people scheduled to arrive next week were now stranded overseas.
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