What Trump's Executive Order Means for the Syrian Health Crisis
The U.S. took in 12,486 Syrian refugees in 2016, a tiny fraction of the 11 million Syrians who have fled their homes since the war there started in 2011. Now, with the signing of President Trump’s executive order, that number will be brought to zero—indefinitely.
This means the U.S. is effectively shutting out a group of people who are suffering from one of the worst humanitarian and public-health crises in recent memory. Syrians are living in medieval conditions, contracting diseases that had been long ago eliminated by vaccination, such as polio. Even highly treatable conditions like diabetes go unchecked, since the Syrian government and its allies have systematically targeted and killed nearly 700 Syrian doctors, according to Physicians for Human Rights.
The five million Syrians who have managed to flee are mostly stuck in refugee camps in neighboring poor countries, such as Jordan and Lebanon,
