Americans have been urged to refrain from traveling to Afghanistan, Burma, North Korea, Venezuela, Iran, or Russia.
The State Department explained that Americans visiting the countries risk “wrongful detention.”
According to the Afghanistan advisory, U.S. citizens must not travel due to “civil unrest, crime, terrorism, risk of wrongful detention, kidnapping, and limited health facilities,” adding, “U.S. citizens should not travel to Afghanistan for any reason, including to accompany eligible family members for relocation.”
As for the Burma advisory, the State Department said “armed conflict, the potential for civil unrest, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, poor health infrastructure, land mines and unexploded ordnance, crime, and wrongful detentions” are active threats against Americans.
The travel advisory on North Korea was dated from April, Iran’s from March, and Russia’s and Venezuela’s from May.
President Trump signed an executive order earlier this month aiming to protect U.S. citizens from wrongful detention overseas.
“The United States must strengthen efforts to protect U.S. nationals from wrongful detention abroad. The United States Government is committed to using every tool available to curb this coercive tactic used by foreign adversaries and must hold such adversaries to account,” the order says. “No American should fear being taken as a political pawn by rogue states. Wrongful detentions are an affront to the rule of law and aim to undermine our leadership on the world stage. The United States will not tolerate these attacks on our sovereignty and U.S. nationals.”
The order further allows Secretary of State Marco Rubio to “designate any foreign country the government of which directly engages in or provides support for the wrongful detention of a U.S. national as a State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention.”
