Trump’s planned reduction in refugees may hit Myanmar worst
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Tin, her husband and five children have cleared years of refugee hurdles to come to the U.S.: blood tests, interviews, DNA and fingerprints, background checks. She has her one must-bring possession within reach, a well-worn Bible, and keeps their phone charged for the U.S. Embassy to call.
But the odds of that happening dropped precipitously.
President Donald Trump’s 16-page redone travel ban “to keep the bad dudes out” aims to stop people from six Muslim countries from entering the U.S. this year and suspends refugees from arriving for 120 days. But the order also includes a sweeping 55 per cent reduction in refugee visas overall, from a planned 110,000 to 50,000 this year. Trump’s executive order had been set to take effect Thursday, but a federal judge put it on hold hours before it was to take effect.
Who are the 60,000 people who may have lost their chance to resettle in the U.S. by September? An Associated Press analysis of 10 years of refugee data suggests that their most common country of origin is not any of the six nations in the travel ban, but Myanmar, also known as Burma. Thousands, like Tin and her family, are Christians who were persecuted in their native country.