Trump Administration Urges Europe To Consider Ebola Travel Limits Ahead Of World Cup

U.S. officials are pressing European governments to restrict travel from Ebola-affected areas in Africa as the WHO continues to oppose blanket travel bans.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom

The Trump administration is urging European governments to consider travel restrictions on people coming from Ebola-affected areas in Africa as North America prepares to host millions of visitors for the FIFA World Cup.

The request marks a direct break from the World Health Organization’s position against broad travel bans during the current Ebola outbreak. U.S. officials have argued that stronger border and travel precautions are needed to reduce the risk of the virus spreading beyond the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and neighboring areas.

Reuters reported Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s administration issued a formal diplomatic statement urging the European Union to consider limits on travelers from affected regions.

“Other countries must do their part to ensure this outbreak ‌does not ⁠spread further. Action is required now. That includes financial contributions and implementing commonsense restrictions on travel from the affected area,” an anonymous U.S. official told Reuters.

Reuters said a European Union official confirmed that Washington issued a demarche, a formal diplomatic communication, seeking European travel restrictions. The request comes as the United States, Canada and Mexico prepare to jointly host the FIFA World Cup, which is scheduled to begin Thursday.

American officials said the health precautions are intended to protect U.S. citizens and visitors during the tournament. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s soccer team, which qualified for the World Cup, was required to follow American travel restrictions before traveling to Houston, Texas, to play.

“We are engaging diplomatically with countries around the world to coordinate our approach to protect our citizens, including the millions of visitors, fans, athletes and tourists expected during the FIFA World Cup,” the U.S. official told Reuters.

Axios also reported Tuesday that an anonymous State Department official said European governments should act to prevent Ebola from spreading.

“European countries must do their part to ensure this outbreak does not spread further,” the official was quoted as saying. “Action is required now.”

The State Department said Tuesday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the outbreak during a phone call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

“The Department’s highest priority and focus remain protecting the health of the American people and preventing this Ebola outbreak from reaching our shores,” State Department spokesman Thomas Pigott said in a statement about the call.

Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke criticized the U.S. request Wednesday and said Belgium is not considering travel bans. Vandenbroucke also connected the outbreak response to the United States’ 2025 withdrawal from the World Health Organization.

“The U.S. bears an overwhelming responsibility for what is happening now, because development cooperation and medical aid have been scaled back,” Vandenbroucke claimed. “They are going to have millions of people on their conscience.”

The current Ebola outbreak in the DRC is occurring in a country with repeated experience fighting the virus. The WHO formally confirmed the outbreak in mid-May. Officials later acknowledged that the agency had missed the early stage of the outbreak, allowing the disease to gain a significant “head start.”

The current outbreak involves the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola. Previous outbreaks in the region were caused by the Zaire and Sudan strains, and tests designed to identify those earlier strains were not effective in detecting Bundibugyo, complicating early case identification.

Security conditions in eastern DRC have also made containment more difficult. The region is affected by armed militias, including fighters associated with the Islamic State, as groups compete for territory tied to dangerous and illicit mining operations.

Public distrust of the WHO has also complicated treatment and contact tracing. That distrust followed revelations that agency employees allegedly engaged in widespread sexual abuse during the previous Ebola outbreak.

The United States has not played a significant role in the DRC mining conflict, illicit mining operations or the WHO sexual abuse scandal. Belgium, by contrast, colonized the territory that later became the DRC for 75 years.

The United States was among the first countries to impose travel limits on people coming from the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan. The American policy requires a 21-day quarantine period before those travelers may enter the United States.

Uganda has also imposed travel restrictions as the outbreak began in eastern DRC near the Ugandan border. Uganda is the only other country to report Ebola deaths in the current outbreak. Other countries that have adopted travel limits include India, Thailand, Canada and the Bahamas. European countries had not implemented similar restrictions at press time.

The U.S. position conflicts with WHO guidance. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who visited the DRC in late May, has urged countries to lift “blanket” travel restrictions.

“Blanket travel restrictions imposed by some countries are disrupting supply chains and hindering the response,” Tedros said in early June. “WHO recommends exit screening at airports, ports and border crossings to prevent the exportation of cases and contacts.”

“We ask countries that have imposed blanket travel restrictions to lift them,” he added.

Tedros also opposed travel restrictions involving China before the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic spread worldwide. Reports in 2020 indicated that WHO leadership prevented medical experts from recommending travel restrictions early in the outbreak.

“The official meeting records say there was a divergence of views but they won’t actually go into detail about who was trying to block it. But there were doctors there who wanted to issue travel bans and the World Health Organization blocked it,” Sky News digital editor Jack Houghton reported in 2020, referring to early WHO meetings on the virus spreading in Wuhan, China.

The WHO has documented 617 confirmed Ebola Bundibugyo cases in the DRC and Uganda during the current outbreak as of Tuesday. The agency reported 117 deaths, 27 full recoveries and another 138 suspected but unconfirmed cases.

The Trump administration’s push for European travel limits now places public health policy, international diplomacy and World Cup security planning at the center of the Ebola response.