America must not lose its humanity
Trump administration’s approach to refugee aid is eroding US moral standing in the world
US President Donald Trump is putting forward a nominee who is virulently anti-immigrant to be assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, a job I used to hold in the previous administration. The nomination is only the latest move by the administration to chip away at US’ standing as the world’s top backer of humanitarian efforts.
The new nominee, Ronald Mortensen, has made his positions on immigration issues clear as a fellow of the Centre for Immigration Studies. For example, he has insisted that most of the “Dreamers” — undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children — have committed felonies. Mortensen’s nomination needs to be understood as part of a campaign to change US’ long tradition of welcoming refugees and immigrants and offering sanctuary to the persecuted.
Trump’s anti-Muslim travel ban, announced shortly after his inauguration, was the first salvo in this campaign. Even with courts overturning various versions of the ban, the White House has succeeded in slashing the number of refugees admitted to the US to the lowest level in years — from 85,000 in the last full year of the previous administration to as few as 20,000 projected for this year.
The network of faith-based and secular charities around the US that support refugee families to create new lives is disintegrating. With so few refugees being admitted, the State Department has announced plans to no longer fund some of these groups. The result is that fewer cities will be involved in the resettlement programmes, the staff and volunteers who help refugees will disperse, and we will lose part of a highly successful public-private partnership. Lost, too, will be the proven economic and cultural benefits additional refugees would bring and the chance for a fresh start they desperately need.
While refugee aid delivered overseas through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees remains at robust levels, this is primarily because of bipartisan support in Congress. Other UN agencies, however, have been cut off. The White House stopped funding the UN Population Fund. The agency plays an essential role in seeing to the reproductive health of displaced women and improving survival rates for mothers and babies, and in 2016, I celebrated when the 5,000th baby was born alive and healthy in its clinic in the Zaatri refugee camp in Jordan. The agency now reports there are 64,000 pregnant Rohingya in the squalor of refugee camps in Bangladesh who need help to deliver their babies safely.
The Trump administration also cut its funding of the UN agency that runs schools and provides health care to Palestinian refugees by more than 80 per cent after Palestinians and UN member states criticised the decision to move the American Embassy in Israel to occupied Jerusalem. The reduction has resulted in what a UN representative has called an “unprecedented financial crisis”. Left unclear is how punishing the poorest Palestinians helps an already tense situation.
‘Pledging conference’
Refugee aid addresses only the basic needs of most refugees, primarily food, water, sanitation and shelter. Convincing other countries to do more and resolving crises so that refugees can go home again requires diplomacy. Yet the Trump administration has weakened the State Department, demoralised our diplomats and threatened programs that foster growth overseas and work to preserve peace and stability. At a recent Brussels “pledging conference” for humanitarian aid for Syrians, the US delegation, which once would have made a major announcement of aid and spurred others to give, did not deliver remarks.
As assistant secretary, I used to lead US delegations to migration conferences to make the case that border crossers have the right to claim asylum, migrant labourers need protection from exploitation and abuse, and, in all cases, people should be treated humanely. Our country led in promoting good ideas. One example is the Migrants in Countries in Crisis initiative, which produced voluntary guidelines to follow when migrants are caught up in disasters far from home.
Now, the administration boycotts meetings on a voluntary global migration compact, making the nonsensical claim it would undermine US sovereignty. It also put forward a candidate to head the International Organisation for Migration who has a record of tweeting anti-Muslim sentiments.
The list of good moves on the part of the Trump administration is short. It’s kept the deal to accept refugees who were isolated in Manus Island and Nauru. It supports an arrangement the Obama administration set up with Costa Rica to keep refugees in imminent peril safe until they can be resettled. By all accounts Trump nominees to head Unicef and the World Food Programme are capable and experienced.
Unfortunately the negatives outweigh the positives. By ignoring the urgent needs of refugees and immigrants within and outside its borders, the current administration is setting bad examples and deconstructing a humanitarian approach that was admired by, and depended on, by millions of people throughout the world. ■ Anne C. Richard is a US public servant who was the Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration from 2012 to 2017.