Trump Admin Defies W.H.O., Asks Europe to Adopt Ebola Travel Bans Before World Cup

Multiple reports published this week indicate that the State Department is encouraging European countries to impose restrictions on travelers from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda, and neighboring areas to contain the spread of the Ebola virus.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that the government of President Donald Trump issued a formal statement encouraging the European Union to consider travel limitations on those from affected regions in Africa.

“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 confirmed with a European Union official that the American government issued a demarche — a formal diplomatic statement — calling for travel restrictions in Europe to protect Americans as millions are expected to travel to North America for the FIFA World Cup. The tournament, widely considered the world’s largest sporting event, is scheduled to begin on Thursday and is being hosted jointly by America, Canada, and Mexico. The DRC soccer team, which qualified to participate, was required to abide by American travel restrictions before coming 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 unnamed U.S. official speaking to Reuters explained.

In remarks similar to those reproduced by Reuters, the Washington, DC, website Axios reported on Tuesday that an anonymous State Department official suggested that European officials have a duty to restrict travel to protect their citizens and America’s from Ebola.

“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 itself revealed on Tuesday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the outbreak in a phone call with the president of the European Commission, 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 phone call.

At least one European public official, Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke, condemned American calls for policies to contain the virus on Wednesday. Vandenbroucke insisted that Belgium is not currently considering travel bans for foreigners, or anyone else, and suggested that the Ebola outbreak in DRC was America’s fault for withdrawing from the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) in 2025.

“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.”

In reality, the Ebola outbreak in DRC was not the result of any American government activity, but is occurring in a country with extensive experience with the disease. The W.H.O. formally confirmed the latest outbreak, spread by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, in mid-May, though agency officials later admitted that they had missed the beginning of the outbreak and the disease had gained a significant “head start.” Prior outbreaks of Ebola in the region have been caused by the Zaire and Sudan strains of the virus and tests to identify those versions of Ebola were not effective in identifying Bundibugyo, limiting health officials’ ability to detect cases.

Also complicating matters is the violent situation in eastern DRC generally, the result of a large number of armed militias, including some associated with the Islamic State, vying for control of territory known for dangerous and illicit mining operations. The violence, along with widespread distrust of the W.H.O. after the discovery of agency employees allegedly engaging in widespread sexual abuse during the last Ebola outbreak, has made treatment of patients and contact tracing a significant challenge.

The United States has played no significant role in the DRC mining conflict, nor is it involved in the illicit mining operations there, nor in the W.H.O. sexual abuse scandal. Belgium, in contrast, infamously colonized the land that ultimately became the DRC for 75 years, ruthlessly exploiting the land and terrorizing local populations.

The United States was among the first countries to impose travel limitations on those coming from the DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan, requiring a 21-day quarantine period for those travelers before they are allowed on American soil. Uganda has imposed travel restrictions as the outbreak began in eastern DRC, on the Ugandan border, and is the only other country to document Ebola deaths in the current outbreak. Other countries adopting travel limitations to contain the virus include India, Thailand, Canada, and the Bahamas. European nations have yet to implement any such restrictions at press time.

The reports of American calls for travel bans are notable in the context of the W.H.O. actively discouraging such policies. W.H.O. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who personally visited the DRC in late May, has called for countries to lift “blanket” travel restrictions, claiming they are not effective.

“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 similarly resisted travel restrictions on China prior to the onset of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. Reports indicated in 2020 that his leadership at the U.N. agency stopped medical experts from recommending travel restrictions.

“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 W.H.O. meetings on the novel coronavirus spreading in Wuhan, China.

The W.H.O. has documented 617 confirmed cases of Ebola Bundibugyo in the DRC and Uganda during the current outbreak as of Tuesday, including 117 deaths and 27 people making full recoveries. Another 138 people have been identified as “suspected,” but not confirmed, Ebola cases.

Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.