U.N. and U.S. Officials Traveled from Ebola-Affected Countries Without Screening

(CNSNews.com) – A recent oversight report by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) inspector general found that during the 2014 Ebola outbreak, "Diplomats, United Nations workers, U.S. Government employees, or other dignitaries were not thoroughly scrutinized or were incorrectly assumed to be exempt from Ebola screening” by Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The DHS Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) Audit Division confirmed to CNSNews.com via email that some of these dignitaries “were allowed back into the US from Ebola-affected countries without screening.”

The report, “DHS' Ebola Response Needs Better Coordination, Training, and Execution,” contained information from “an internal CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) report identifying problems with processing travelers with a nexus to Ebola-affected countries,” according to the DHS IG Office.

CNSNews.com asked how many of the dignitaries mentioned in the IG report were exempt from screening, and the IG explained that the internal CBP report “did not stipulate the number of instances that Diplomats, UN workers, government employees or other dignitaries were exempted from screening.”

The internal CBP report also did not stipulate whether the diplomats erroneously exempted from screening were U.S. or foreign diplomats.

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