Stranded Yemenis, thousands of others stand to lose 'golden ticket' to U.S.

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Yemen is urging the U.S. government to take in dozens of Yemenis who travelled to Malaysia in recent months expecting to immigrate to the United States, only to find themselves stranded by President Donald Trump's temporary travel ban.

The ban, which was blocked by lower courts before being partially reinstated by the Supreme Court in June, temporarily bars citizens of Yemen and five other Muslim-majority countries with no "bona fide" connections to the United States from travelling there.

The Supreme Court ruling sharply limited the number of people affected by the ban. Largely unreported has been the fate of one group - thousands of citizens of the six countries who won a randomized U.S. government lottery last year that enabled them to apply for a so-called green card granting them permanent residence in the United States.

In a stroke of bad luck for the lottery winners, the 90-day travel ban will expire on Sept. 27, just three days before their eligibility for the green cards expires. Given the slow pace of the immigration process, the State Department will likely struggle to issue their visas in time.

A recent email from the U.S. government to lottery winners still awaiting their visas warned "it is plausible that your case will not be issuable" due to the travel ban.

The lottery attracts about 14 million applicants each year, many of whom view it as a chance at the "American Dream." It serves as a potent symbol of U.S. openness abroad, despite the fact that the chance of success is miniscule - about 0.3 percent, or slightly fewer than 50,000, of lottery entrants actually got a green card in 2015.

The programme helps to foster an image of America "as a country which welcomes immigrants and immigration from around the world, but also especially from Africa," said Johnnie Carson, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs during the Obama administration.

Yemeni Rafek Ahmed Mohammed Al-Sanani, 22, looks through documents as he speaks with Reuters in Serdang, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia July 20, 2017.

Some former diplomats worry the travel ban's impact on the lottery could tarnish that image of inclusiveness.

"Taking this away from people who have won it is the cruellest possible thing this administration could do," said Stephen Pattison, a former senior State Department consular official. "It makes us look petty and cruel as a society."

Reuters spoke to dozens of lottery winners from Yemen, Iran and Syria, including about 20 who are still waiting for their visas to be issued. Many declined to be named so as not to risk their applications but provided emails and other documents to help confirm their accounts.

They described having spent thousands of dollars on the application process, and many said they had delayed having children, sold property and turned down lucrative job offers at home because they assumed they would soon be moving to the United States.

An Arduous Journey

    For Yemenis, the situation is particularly difficult. Because the United States does not maintain a diplomatic post in Yemen, its citizens are assigned to other countries to apply for their visas, and many of them to travel to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The journey to a country 4,000 miles (6,400 km) away can be expensive and arduous for Yemenis, whose country, the Middle East's poorest, is embroiled in a two-year conflict.

Most of the Yemenis who come to Malaysia make their first stop at a high-rise apartment building on the outskirts of the capital, where they have built a small community. Because of immigration restrictions, they are not allowed to work and are slowly running out of money. Most survive from funds donated by other Yemenis or sent by relatives back home.

"Imagine you get notified you got the golden ticket, only to have it yanked away," said Joshua Goldstein, a U.S. immigration attorney who advises lottery winners.