On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order which bars the entry of people from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen into the US for 90 days. This ban has reportedly hindered the work of international tech organizations by blocking some of their members from attending meetings due to restrictions on travel.
As reported by Motherboard, two people who work with ICANN say that they are unable to attend various meetings because they cannot go in and out of the US.
Kaveh Ranjbar, one of ICANN’s board members, through a post on social media, said that he had to miss his flight to Los Angeles on Monday because of the ban. Ranjbar was born in Iran and lives in the Netherlands, where he is the Chief Information Officer of RIPE NCC, a non-profit regional Internet Registry which has offices in Amsterdam and Dubai. Through his post, he said that he will attend the meeting remotely, but he is unable to do a part of his job because of the ban.
James Cole, Global Media Co-ordinator, ICANN said:
The organization is working to understand the potential impact for our community, Board and staff travelers, and what we can do to ensure ICANN’s continued openness and accessibility.
Farzaneh Badiei, an Iranian-born associate researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the chair of non-commercial users constituency at ICANN has also said that she will not be able to attend the March 2017 ICANN community forum in Copenhagen.