A day after the recently announced travel ban went into effect in the United States – fully restricting entry by citizens of 12 countries and partially restricting entry by citizens of seven additional countries – the government of Turkmenistan addressed its appearance among the latter category.
In a press statement on June 10, the Turkmen Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the partial ban “causes extreme misunderstanding and concern on the Turkmen side.”
The ministry noted Turkmenistan’s neutral status and cooperation with foreign states in matters of entry and exit, before noting that “that measures similar to the above restrictions are introduced in cases of foreign citizens committing serious offenses in the host country.”
“In this regard, it should be especially emphasized that citizens of Turkmenistan traveling abroad, including to the United States of America, are distinguished by a high level of law-abidingness.”
The Turkmen Ministry of Foreign Affairs concluded by calling the partial ban a “hasty step.”
On June 4, U.S. President Donald Trump issued a proclamation outlining a sweeping travel ban, a clear resurrection of a controversial policy from his first term. Afghanistan, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen are subject to the total ban and Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela to partial bans.
Turkmenistan’s appearance on the list raised eyebrows, given the country’s small footprint among travelers globally, and to the United States in particular. Ashgabat is known to heavily control the entry of foreigners into its territory, and also keeps tabs on its citizens who travel abroad.
The recent ban is grounded in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s 2023 Entry/Exit Overstay Report. Fiscal year 2023 ran from October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023. Turkmenistan shut down all commercial airline flights to the country at the start of COVID-19 pandemic, and only in 2022 started re-opening some select routes. For example, flights to Dubai and Kazan, Russia, resumed in May and June 2022, Germany in August 2022, and Abu Dhabi in December 2022. It wasn’t until March 2023 that Turkmenistan officially re-opened for tourism, marking a concurrent increase in international flights more broadly.
While we do not know the reasons for any specific individual to overstay their visa, in at least part of the period under consideration it would have been difficult, and expensive, for most Turkmen to find a flight home – even if they wanted one.
The number of Turkmen expected to depart the United States in FY2023 – adding business and tourism visas to student and exchange visas – amounted to 1,132. Of that number, there were 187 overstays (24 on student and exchange visas, 142 on business or tourism visas). For regional comparison, consider Kazakhstan. In 2023, there 26,924 departures were expected (6,684 on student and exchange visas, the remainder on business or tourism visas); of those there were 1,092 overstays (227 on student and exchange visas). The resulting percentages are far apart – a business or tourism visa overstay rate of 4.27 percent for Kazakhstan and 15.35 for Turkmenistan – but the number of Kazakhs who overstayed their visas is almost as much as the number of Turkmen who departed as expected.
As I noted in my previous reporting, the U.S. president’s proclamation offers no other justification beyond the overstay rates for Turkmenistan’s presence on the list.
The proclamation noted that the policy will be reviewed after 90 days, with recommendations on whether the listed limitations should be “continued, terminated, modified, or supplemented.”