Ban on Syrian refugees and other Muslims

PRESIDENT Donald Trump has signed an executive order indefinitely banning admission of people fleeing Syria, temporarily freezing the entry of other refugees and prohibiting entry by people from seven majorityMuslim nations for 90 days.

Trump said the measure would prevent terrorists being admitted into the country. Democrats labelled the order a “Muslim ban” and criticised it as inhumane.

The admission of refugees would be suspended for 120 days. Citizens of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, and Libya would be banned from entering the US for 90 days, while the government determines what information it needs from other countries to safely admit visitors. The order doesn’t list the countries.

People from countries that are unwilling or unable to provide the information may be permanently banned from the US, under a future proclamation, the order says.

Trump signed the order after a ceremonial swearing-in of his defence secretary, James Mattis. Trump said the order would “keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the USA”.

“We want to make sure we are not admitting to our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas.”

Senator Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, likened the ban to the country’s slow response to the Holocaust prior to the US’s entry into World War 2.

“Faced with the humanitarian crisis of our time, the US cannot turn its back on children fleeing persecution, genocide and terror,” Durbin said in a statement calling Trump’s order a “ban on Muslims in the US”.

He added: “During the Holocaust we failed to fulfil our duty to humanity. We cannot allow mindless fear to lead us into another regretful chapter in our history.”

Trump said in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network this week that he regarded Christians as a priority for the US refugee programme.

“They’ve been horribly treat- ed,” Trump told the network. “Do you know if you were a Christian in Syria it was impossible, at least very tough, to get into the US?

“If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible.”

State Department data shows that 34 Syrian Christian refugees were admitted into the US in the fiscal year that ended September 30, and 39 so far in the current fiscal year. By comparison, 12 486 Muslim Syrians were admitted in fiscal 2016 and 4 772 so far this year.

Syria is a majority Muslim nation, and US officials say Christians fleeing the country’s civil war have largely wound up at refugee processing centres in areas the US government considers unsafe to work.

Trump’s order would require the government “to the extent permitted by law, to prioritise refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religiousbased persecution”.

Only people who are religious minorities in their countries would be eligible.

Trump also signed a measure at the Pentagon that he said would “begin a great rebuilding of the armed services”, including “new planes, new ships, new resources and new tools for our men and women in uniform”.

The memorandum orders Mattis to conduct a 30-day review of military readiness and to work with Trump’s budget director on a request for extra money from Congress for the Pentagon.

During his campaign, Trump warned that the US risked allowing terrorists to slip into the country as part of the refugee programme, pointing to terrorist attacks such as the killing of a French priest and a bombing at a German music festival as evidence of the danger posed by refugees.

Trump originally proposed a temporary ban on all Muslim immigration to the US.

After drawing criticism, he subsequently proposed blocking immigration from countries with a “proven history” of terrorism.

Other than Syria, he didn’t specify what countries met that definition.

Trump’s call to limit refugee admissions has been denounced by human rights groups.

“We bomb your country, creating a humanitarian nightmare, then lock you inside,” Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, said. “That’s a horror movie, not a foreign policy.” — Bloomberg

We bomb your country, creating a humanitarian nightmare, then lock you inside. That’s a horror movie