Merkel
'explains' refugee convention to Trump in phone call
German
chancellor speaks to president amid international anger over US ban
on people from seven Muslim countries
Sam
Jones and Philip Oltermann
Sunday
29 January 2017 16.45 GMT
Donald
Trump’s executive order to halt travel from seven Muslim-majority
countries – Iraq, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia –
has provoked a wave of concern and condemnation from international
leaders and politicians.
A
spokesman for Angela Merkel said the German chancellor regretted
Trump’s decision to ban citizens of certain countries from entering
the US, adding that she had “explained” the obligations of the
refugee convention to the new president in a phone call on Saturday.
“The
chancellor regrets the US government’s entry ban against refugees
and the citizens of certain countries,” Merkel’s spokesman
Steffen Seibert said in a statement.
“She
is convinced that the necessary, decisive battle against terrorism
does not justify a general suspicion against people of a certain
origin or a certain religion.
“The
… refugee convention requires the international community to take
in war refugees on humanitarian grounds. All signatory states are
obligated to do. The German government explained this policy in their
call yesterday.”
Seibert
said the German government would examine what consequences the ban
would have for German citizens with dual citizenship, and would
“represent their interests, if necessary, before our American
partners”.
A
summary of the phone call between Merkel and Trump, jointly issued to
the press on Saturday, had made no mention of the travel ban,
emphasising merely the “fundamental significance” of Nato and the
intention to “further deepen the already excellent bilateral
relations in the coming years”.
The
French president, François Hollande, said on Saturday that “when
[Trump] rejects the arrival of refugees, while Europe has done its
duty, we should respond to him”.
Hollande
said that in an unstable and uncertain world, “withdrawal into
oneself is a dead-end response”, adding that defending democratic
principles required compliance with “the principles on which it is
founded, in particular the acceptance of refugees”.
Crowds gather at US airports over the weekend to protest Trump’s
immigration ban
In a
tweet, Italy’s prime minister, Paolo Gentiloni, said his country
was committed to the values that bind Europe: “Open society; plural
identity; no discrimination.”
However,
the leader of Italy’s anti-immigrant Northern League party
expressed admiration for Trump’s entry ban.
“What
Trump’s doing on the other side of the ocean, I’d like it done
here, too,” said Matteo Salvini. Referring to the hundreds of
thousands of asylum seekers and economic migrants brought to Italy in
the last few years after being rescued in the Mediterranean, Salvini
said there was “an invasion under way which needs to be blocked”.
Ireland’s
foreign affairs minister, Charlie Flanagan, said that while US
immigration policy was a matter for the US government, “it is clear
that the most recent decisions could have far-reaching implications –
both on humanitarian grounds and on relations between the US and the
global Muslim community”.
The
Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, tweeted:
Iran’s
foreign minister, Javad Sarif, said Trump’s decision would be
recorded in history as “a great gift to extremists and their
supporters … Collective discrimination aids terrorist recruitment
by deepening faultlines exploited by extremist demagogues to swell
their ranks.”
Margot
Wallström,
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