The Bank Information Center advocates for social, ecological and economic justice by amplifying local voices and democratizing international development finance. As an organization which works to protect the fundamental human rights of marginalized populations, including refugees, we condemn in the strongest possible terms the discriminatory Executive Order signed by President Trump to ban nationals from seven Muslim majority nations from entering the United States and to severely limit the number of refugees the United States accepts.
The Executive Order has serious implications for the communities that BIC supports—including those negatively impacted by development finance in Iraq, Yemen, and Syria—in communicating their experiences to development finance institutions (DFIs) and seeking a resolution for their concerns. The inability of nationals from Iraq, Yemen, Syria, and other countries to travel to the United States will prevent communities from making their voices heard at the headquarters of the World Bank, along with the Washington offices of other DFIs, and will compromise the ability of these institutions to respond to their concerns.
We call on the Trump Administration to immediately rescind the Executive Order.