UK Prime Minister Theresa May has failed to condemn Donald Trump's widely criticised ban on refugees entering the United States.

Trump yesterday signed an executive order that will curb immigration and refugees from some Muslim-majority countries and he separately said he wanted the United States to give priority to Syrian Christians fleeing the civil war there.

Mrs May initially dodged questions about her view on the controversial move but later when pressed insisted it was up to America to devise its own policy.

But during a joint press conference in Ankara, her Turkish counterpart Binali Yildirim hit out at the ban, warning the US that building a wall would not solve the crisis.

READ: Trump bars door to refugees

May told reporters: "The United States is responsible for the United States policy on refugees.

"The United Kingdom is responsible for the United Kingdom's policy on refugees and our policy on refugees is to have a number of voluntary schemes to bring Syrian refugees into the country, particularly those who are most vulnerable, but also to provide significant financial contributions to support refugees in countries surrounding Syria."

France, Germany express concern

While May avoided criticising Trump's decision, France, Germany and Luxembourg voiced disquiet over the move.

Speaking at a joint news conference in Paris with his German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said many of Trump's decisions worried the two U.S. allies, including new immigration restrictions.

"This can only worry us, but there are many subjects that worry us," Ayrault said, adding that he would soon invite his future American counterpart Rex Tillerson to Paris to explain Europe's interests, values and vision of the world.

"Welcoming refugees who flee war and oppression is part of our duty," Ayrault said.

Germany has taken in more than one million refugees and migrants, mainly from the Middle East, since 2015.

A woman exits immigration after arriving from Dubai at John F. Kennedy airport in New York. Photo: ReutersA woman exits immigration after arriving from Dubai at John F. Kennedy airport in New York. Photo: Reuters

Although traditionally open to asylum seekers, France has taken in far fewer refugees than Germany since the migrant crisis erupted. Some in the French government, mostly ex-premier Manuel Valls, criticising Berlin's open-door policy, as has Trump.

"The United States is a country where Christian traditions have an important meaning. Loving your neighbour is a major Christian value, and that includes helping people," said Germany's Gabriel, who was on his first trip abroad since his nomination as foreign minister.

"I think that is what unites us in the West, and I think that is what we want to make clear to the Americans."

Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said Trump's order would have negative consequences.

"The American president is dividing the Muslim world into good and evil with this," Asselborn told the Tagesspiegel German newspaper. "The decision is also bad for Europe because it will increase the Muslim world's mistrust and hatred of the West."

Iraqis stranded

The ban on refugees is also expected to affect two programs US lawmakers created a few years after the 2003 invasion of Iraq to help the tens of thousands of Iraqis who risked their lives helping Americans.

Iraqis coming to the United States under the Special Immigrant Visa program for Iraqis, which stopped accepting new applications in 2014, or the ongoing Direct Access Program for U.S.-Affiliated Iraqis are losing hope of ever getting out.

"Mr. Trump, the new president, killed our dreams," said one Baghdad man whose wife worked for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as a bookkeeper.

"I don't have any hope to go to the United States," he said in a telephone interview, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by Iraq's Sunni and Shia militant groups and also of unfavourable treatment by the Trump administration.

More than 7,000 Iraqis, many of them interpreters for the U.S. military, have resettled in the United States under the Special Immigrant Visa program since 2008, while another 500 or so are still being processed, according to State Department figures.

Another 58,000 Iraqis were awaiting interviews under the Direct Access program, according to the International Refugee Assistance Project. Tens of thousands have already arrived under the second program, but no recent total was available.

"A lot of translators were trying to get the hell out of there because they had a mark on their head for working with U.S. forces," Allen Vaught, a former U.S. Army captain who went to Fallujah in western Iraq in 2003, said in a telephone interview. "They're viewed as collaborators."

He fears the order would endanger American troops by making it harder to recruit local support in war zones, a belief echoed by several advocacy groups working on behalf of America's Iraqi employees.

Others in Iraq remained hopeful they would eventually get out.

An Iraqi man who worked for a U.S. defence contractor and later alongside U.S. troops as a mid-ranking Iraqi Army officer, recalled his excitement at getting the phone call a few weeks ago telling him that his family had an interview appointment at the U.S. consulate after two years and four applications.

He was hopeful it would still take place in mid-February, believing that American officials would be concerned about the threats to his family. He was unaware that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday temporarily halted trips by staff to interview applicants.

"I believe this is politics, things you hear on the news," he said by phone from Baghdad on condition of anonymity. "I don't think they would prevent Iraqis coming to America."

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.