Iraqi family speaks out after blocked from entering US An Iraqi family was banned from travelling from Cairo to New York on Saturday, the day after after US President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order to suspend refugee arrivals and impose tough controls on travellers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Fuad Sharef, 51, and his wife and three children were instead forced to board a flight back to Arbil in Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan. Sharef, who is now staying in his brother-in-law's apartment in Arbil, says that he had applied for a special immigration programme that was offered to Iraqis who helped the American mission in Iraq. From 2003 to 2005 he worked with a subcontracting institution for a USAID programme to help local government in Iraq. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES