With one stroke of a pen, a family’s dream is destroyed
All they wanted was safety and a future for their children
AMMAN // Syrian refugee Ammar Sawan took his first step towards settlement in the US three months ago, submitting to an initial round of security screenings.
Now his dreams of a better life lie crushed by Donald Trump’s ban on displaced Syrians entering the US. “When we heard of the order from the TV, it was like a bolt of lightning, and all our hopes and dreams vanished,” said the 40-year-old.
The upholsterer, who supports his family by doing odd jobs in the Jordanian capital Amman, was shocked and saddened by Mr Trump’s inference that all Syrians were potential security threats. He was especially disappointed that his four children would now not get the good education he wanted for them.
Nearly five million Syrians have fled their homeland since civil war erupted in 2011. Most have settled in neighbouring countries, such as Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. But those countries are struggling with the vast number of people they have taken in.
With few jobs available and limited education for refugee children, the struggle for survival is getting more difficult and refugees are increasingly pursuing resettlement in the West. The International Rescue Committee called the new US restrictions on refugees “harmful and hasty”.
“The US must remain true to its core values,” said IRC president David Miliband. “America must remain a beacon of hope.”
The US vetting process for refugees is already robust, involving biometric screening and up to 36 months of vetting by 12 to 15 government agencies.
Jan Egeland, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said Mr Trump’s decision hurt innocent people fleeing extremist violence in Syria. “It will not make America safer,” he said.
“It will make America smaller and meaner. It’s a really sad rupture of a long and proud American bi- partisan tradition that America would be there for those fleeing from terror and for the weak and the vulnerable in the world, who the refugees are.”