Coronavirus: Donald Trump’s travel ban causes ‘mass panic’, prompting criticism from EU leaders

US president announced sweeping restrictions on travel from Europe on Wednesday, disrupting the travel plans of tens of thousands of people

Trump said he had to act because the EU had failed to take adequate measures to halt the spread of coronavirus

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Travellers at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport. Photo: AFP

Published: 7:23pm, 12 Mar 2020Updated: 7:34pm, 12 Mar 2020

European Union leaders on Thursday rebuked the US for imposing a unilateral travel ban on arrivals from countries in the Schengen passport-free zone without consulting them.

Seeking to curtail the spread of the coronavirus, US President Donald Trump announced sweeping restrictions on travel from Europe on Wednesday, disrupting the travel plans of tens of thousands of people, hitting already battered airlines and further straining ties with the EU.

“The coronavirus is a global crisis, not limited to any continent, and it requires cooperation rather than unilateral action,” EU presidents Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel said.

“The European Union disapproves of the fact that the US decision to impose a travel ban was taken unilaterally and without consultation. The European Union is taking strong action to limit the spread of the virus.”

Bleary-eyed and stressed, US and European travellers at Madrid’s Barajas airport scrambled to board the last flights back to the US before a 30-day suspension begins at midnight on Friday.

“It caused a mass panic,” said 20-year-old Anna Grace, a US student at Suffolk University who was on her first trip to Europe and swiftly changed her booking to fly back home instead of going on to France.