Accessibility links

Breaking News

Yemeni Journalist Denied Entry to US to Receive Award


Yemeni journalist Afrah Nasser poses for a photo during an interview in Stockholm June 14, 2011.
Yemeni journalist Afrah Nasser poses for a photo during an interview in Stockholm June 14, 2011.

Prominent Yemeni journalist Afrah Nasser has been denied entry to the United States to accept an award, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

In September, the CPJ announced that it would present its 2017 International Press Freedom award to Nasser, who has been living in exile in Sweden.

Though she holds Swedish citizenship and has a legitimate reason to travel to the United States, she has been denied a visa - potentially due to U.S. President Donald Trump's travel ban which includes restrictions on travelers from Yemen.

"While there are good reasons why I should travel to the U.S. and join the CPJ, my two U.S. visa applications to date have been rejected by the American embassy in Stockholm, Sweden. I am currently applying for the third time, and I am not optimistic," Nasser wrote on her blog Friday.

"The proposed travel ban has gone through various iterations, but what I know for sure is that my visa applications to the U.S. embassy in Stockholm were rejected because of it," she wrote.

Nasser is hoping to receive the award from the New York-based committee's award ceremony on November 15. She applied for asylum in Sweden in 2011 after receiving death threats in connection with her blogs and stories critical of the regime in Yemen. She has continued to report on the war in the country from Stockholm for the past six years, according to the CPJ.

  • 16x9 Image

    VOA News

    The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.

XS
SM
MD
LG