Is Carrie Symonds barred from the US?

Carrie Symonds, the girlfriend of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has been barred from visiting the United States, according to unconfirmed reports.

On Wednesday the Daily Mail reported that Symonds, 31, had applied for a visa to visit the US for work, but authorities in Washington have allegedly blocked the request over a trip she took to the disputed region of Somaliland in 2018.

The paper reports that Symonds took a five-day trip to visit Somali-born social activist Nimco Ali last year, during which she met President Muse Bihi Abdi to discuss “women's issues and sea pollution”.

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The Daily Telegraph notes that under immigration laws brought in by US President Donald Trump in 2017, people who have visited Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia or Yemen since March 2011 will have their US Electronic System for Travel Authorization (Esta) applications refused for security reasons.

Somaliland is a breakaway territory of Somalia that unilaterally declared independence in 1991 but is not recognised internationally. Although it is generally considered safe to visit, the US still considers it part of Somalia and thus it falls under the so-called “travel ban” implemented by Trump.

Neither British nor US authorities have yet to comment on the matter, but Ali today called the US policy “unfair and unjust”.

“It should be reviewed because it’s based on false information linked to Somalia,” she added in the Evening Standard. “Many people who have never been to Somaliland assume it’s like something from the Hollywood film Black Hawk Down, but the reality could not be further from the truth.”

The Mail alleges that Symonds had hoped to visit the US instead of travelling with Johnson to this weekend’s G7 summit in the French seaside city of Biarritz.

“She has a series of meetings in America as part of her job as an adviser for Oceana, a non-profit organisation that seeks to protect the world's oceans,” the paper adds.