Trump’s comment on Syrian refugees off the mark

Among Syrian refugees, “there aren’t that many women, there aren’t that many children.”— Donald Trump on Oct. 4 in an interview on ABC’s“This Week”

Donald Trump is now against bringing any Syrian refugees to the United States, saying he has concerns about how many able-bodied men seem to be fleeing the war-torn nation.

“This Week” host George Stephanopoulos asked Trump last Sunday why he told a New Hampshire crowd he would send refugees back to Syria should he win the presidency. Trump had previously said he would accept some Syrian refugees for humanitarian reasons.

“The migration was strange to me because it seems like so many men,” Trump answered. “There aren’t that many women, there aren’t that many children.”

It appears Trump is conflating two different sets of refugees: Those 534,000 reaching Europe by sea, who are mostly men, and the 4 million Syrians in U.N. refugee camps, most of whom are women and children.

Only about 10,000 refugees in the camps are slated for resettlement in the United States over the next year. Those making the perilous trip to Europe are not.

Trump’s assessment of the refugee situation is badly mangled.

We rated his statement False.

ASSOCIATED PRESS Syrian refugee brothers ranging in age from 6 to 10 wait for a train in Tovarnik, Croatia, to take them and their father to Germany to join their sister and mother who fled Syria a month earlier.