JOHANNESBURG (TIP): Hundreds of Yemenis with US visas are stranded in the tiny African state of Djibouti because of President Donald Trump‘s ban on entry for citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, an American lawyer there said Feb 1.

“These are all children, parents and the spouses of US citizens,” lawyer Julie Goldberg told The Associated Press, emphasizing that those stranded are not refugees. They received visas last week, she said.

More than half of the 200-plus Yemenis are children, including a 3-year-old whose parents are permanent residents in the US and has never seen her father in person, said Goldberg, an immigration lawyer.

She has obtained a court order dated Tuesday from the US District Court in California‘s central district instructing the US government to not enforce Trump’s executive order and allow the Yemenis to fly to the United tates.

The court order calls on the US government to not cancel “validly obtained and issued immigrant visas” and to return passports containing those visas so people can travel to the US. Goldberg is now seeking an airline that will comply with the court order.

“It’s super frustrating,” she said of the Yemenis’ plight. “They’re running out of money. Djibouti is very expensive. They can’t go back to Yemen, they would be killed.”

Yemen has been engulfed in conflict since 2014. A Saudi-led coalition, backed by the United States, has been carrying out an air campaign against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels for nearly two years. Djibouti and Yemen lie on opposite sides of the narrow Bab al-Mandab — Arabic for “the gates of grief” —straits at the mouth of the Red Sea.

Mohamed Mosleh Jeran is one of the Yemenis waiting in Djibouti. After his family’s home was blown up in Yemen’s conflict, he and his wife and two young children spent two years in Djibouti. Last month, the younger son died during what should have been a routine surgery. On Thursday, the family received their US visas and looked forward to joining Jeran’s father, a U.S. citizen, in New York City. (AP)