The United States is considering extending its travel ban to 36 more countries, according to a person familiar with the memo, which would mean a drastic expansion of restrictions on entry for nearly 1.5 billion people, AFP reported.

Earlier this month, the State Department announced that it was banning citizens from 12 countries, including Afghanistan, Haiti, and Iran, and imposing a partial ban on travelers from seven other countries, reinstating a controversial measure from President Donald Trump's first term.

But the expansion of the travel ban to three dozen more countries, including US partners such as Egypt, as well as other countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, appears to be intensifying the president's crackdown on immigration.

The Washington Post reported that it had reviewed the internal memo and that it was signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and sent to diplomats working with those countries.

A person who saw the document confirmed its authenticity.

According to the information, the governments of the listed countries have 60 days to comply with the new requirements set by the State Department.

The countries include some of the most populous in Africa—Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Tanzania—as well as Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Saint Lucia, South Sudan, Syria, and Vanuatu.

If the ban is extended to include all countries listed in the memorandum, nearly one in five people in the world will live in a country affected by US travel restrictions.

The 19 countries facing a total or partial ban on entry to the US, together with the 36 listed in the latest order, represent 1.47 billion people, or about 18% of the world's population.

When the initial ban was announced this month, Trump warned that it could be expanded to other countries "if threats emerge around the world."

The ban did not initially include Egypt, but the proposed list of follow-up measures does.

Trump said the initial measure was prompted by the recent "terrorist attack" against Jews in Colorado.

US officials said the suspect, Mohamed Sabri Soliman, an Egyptian citizen according to court documents, was in the country illegally after overstaying his tourist visa but had applied for asylum in September 2022. |BGNES