The European Union has delivered a tacit rebuke to US President Donald Trump over his new travel bans, but diplomats said harsher criticism was unlikely due to internal divisions among EU member states.
In his most far-reaching action since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump last Friday put a four-month hold on allowing refugees into the United States and temporarily banned travellers from seven Muslim-majority nations.
The action, which resulted in legal U.S. residents also being turned away at airports, drew strong criticism from rights groups, foreign leaders and others.
The EU's foreign policy chief, Italy's Federica Mogherini, said Europe would continue to work closely with countries across the Muslim world and to help refugees from the region.
"In Europe, we have a history that has taught us that ... you might end up being in a prison if you build all the walls around you," said Mogherini when asked about Trump's action.
"The EU will continue to work... with all the countries of the region regardless of their religion."
Trump's ban covers citizens of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. He says the ban will help keep Americans safe and he has cited recent attacks by Islamist militants in several European countries.
"WE DO NOT DISCRIMINATE"
A spokesman for the European Commission said lawyers were analysing Trump's executive order on immigration to see whether it would affect Europeans, adding that this was not yet clear.
"This is the European Union and in the European Union we do not discriminate on the basis of nationality, race or religion," said the spokesman, Margaritis Schinas.
But achieving unity among the EU's 28 member states on Trump's travel ban is likely to prove difficult, especially given the rise of anti-Muslim, far-right parties in France, the Netherlands and elsewhere.
The speed of Trump's announcements since taking office and his use of Twitter to communicate directly with supporters have also wrongfooted the EU, with its cumbersome decision-making machinery.
"Even if we arrive at a common stance, there is a group of EU states that would not sign anything too critical of the United States," said one diplomat in Brussels.
A second diplomat also said the trans-Atlantic relationship required delicate handling.
"There is the problem of the speed at which he Tweets and how the EU works, how quickly we can react. And the general mood is of great caution. It's a new situation in which we could end up preaching to the United States as we would normally do to a third-world country," the diplomat added.
While some EU officials and citizens see Trump's ban as discriminatory and xenophobic, the EU is currently also working to curb the flow of migrants and refugees to its soil after the uncontrolled arrival of some 1.5 million people in 2015-2016.
Though the EU measures on curbing immigration fall well short of Trump's travel bans, member states such as Hungary and Bulgaria have built new border fences to try to keep out migrants and refugees.