Trump Signs Revised Executive Order Suspending Refugee Resettlement
U.S. president Donald Trump signed a new executive order suspending refugee resettlement to the U.S. for at least 120 days, and capping the number of refugees to be resettled during fiscal year 2017 at 50,000.
The mandate also suspends visas for Syrians, Iranians, Iraqis, Somalis, Sudanese, Yemenis and Libyans for 90 days. It replaces the January 27 executive order, which was blocked by legal challenges.
The order includes a few changes to the original order designed to avoid further court battles: It removes the indefinite ban on Syrian refugees, drops Iraq from the list of countries on the travel ban and leaves out the preference given to refugees from religious minorities.
But the new order, which comes into effect on March 16, keeps the central curtailment of refugee resettlement in place and leaves room for more restrictions in future.
The head of the U.N. refugee agency, Filippo Grandi, expressed concern “that this decision, though temporary, may compound the anguish for those it affects,” the Associated Press reported.
ECJ Says Europe Not Required to Give Refugees Humanitarian Visas
The European Court of Justice ruled that E.U. law does not require European countries to issue humanitarian visas to refugees, Deutsche Welle reported.
The decision by the Luxembourg-based court was in response to the case of a Syrian family from Aleppo who applied for humanitarian visas to Belgium in order to seek asylum when they got to the country.
Belgium denied them visas, saying the family intended to overstay the visa and the country could not issue visas to everyone in a “catastrophic situation.”
Last month, the ECJ advocate general issued a legal opinion that E.U. law does require countries to provide visas to those fleeing persecution or torture.
However, the court finally ruled that there is no such legal obligation on E.U. countries.
E.U. to Host Follow-Up Syria Aid Conference
The E.U. will host an aid conference on Syria on April 5 in Brussels to follow up on pledges from last year’s summit, the Associated Press reported.
In February 2016, nations pledged $10 billion in aid to Syrians and Syrian refugees. E.U. foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said a key aim of the new summit is “checking where we are with the pledges.”