By Emma Farge
GENEVA/NAIROBI, July 17 (Reuters) - Seven American aid workers who had been in Congo to fight the Ebola outbreak are quarantining at an isolation facility in Kenya after the U.S. government introduced new travel restrictions, the head of a U.S. charity employing them told Reuters.
Washington's new policy says American citizens returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where there is an Ebola outbreak, must spend three weeks in a third country before entering the United States.
The bio-isolation unit built by the U.S. government on an air force base in central Kenya for Americans exposed to the virus in Democratic Republic of Congo or Uganda has angered many Kenyans who accuse the U.S. of offloading the health risk of caring for patients.
Last month, Kenya's health minister announced an immediate halt to the construction of the facility after he was found guilty of contempt of court for failing to observe suspension orders issued by a local court against proceeding with the unit.
"Samaritan’s Purse has seven American Disaster Assistance Response Team staff members there," Franklin Graham, President and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse told Reuters in response to Reuters' questions.
"None of them have any symptoms, but they are being quarantined by the Kenyan government for 21 days," Graham said.
(Reporting by Emma Farge; Additional reporting by Ammu Kannampilly in Nairobi and Maria Tsvetkova in New York, Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
