Secretary-General António Guterres of the United Nations said, Wednesday, that the executive order signed by President Donald Trump that, among things, halts the entire US refugee programme for 120 days, bars entry of refugees from seven mostly Muslim countries for 90 days and suspends entry of Syrians until further notice “should be removed sooner rather than later.”
Speaking to reporters at UN Headquarters, Guterres noted that the measures “violate our basic principles,” and said they are not effective if the objective is to avoid terrorist entering the US. He explained, “We are dealing with very sophisticated global terrorist organizations. If a global terrorist organization [tried] to attack a country like the United States, they will probably not come with people with passports from those countries that are hotspots of conflict today,” adding that they might come with passports from the most developed in the world or they might use people who have been for decades sometimes inside the countries.