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 Already worried that his application would not be approved in time
to get the treatment he needs, the United States' four-month halt of
the resettlement of refugees has convinced him he will never be
accepted.
"I'm going to die here by myself," Al Ameen said in a phone
interview on Sunday. "Where do people expect all the refugees to go?
We have nowhere to go."
President Donald Trump's executive order last Friday has sowed panic
and uncertainty among refugees who need urgent medical care, some of
whom had prioritized applications, according to aid workers.
Al Ameen, who asked that his last name not be disclosed because he
fears attacks on his relatives still in Iraq, said his condition has
deteriorated in recent months. He lives in Jordan alone, is barely
able to move and is covered by bruises.
The four-month U.S. ban on accepting refugees could mean as many as
800 people needing medical treatment will be denied entry, said
Karen Monken of HIAS, a Maryland-based refugee assistance
organization formerly known as Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. Before
the halt, about 200 refugees with significant medical issues were
being resettled in the United States each month on average, she
said.
Trump administration officials say the 120-day ban is temporary and
needed so that a new vetting system can be put in place, which they
say will prevent terrorist attacks. The order singles out Syrian
refugees and suspends their admission until "sufficient changes have
been made" to the refugee program. The executive order allows
exemptions on a case-by-case basis.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment
on refugees in need of urgent medical care.
DOCTORS' APPOINTMENTS MADE
Under the system in place before the temporary halt, after refugees
register with the United Nations and undergo initial assessment and
interviews, the strongest candidates are referred for resettlement,
aid workers and U.N. officials said. Those referred to the United
States tend to be the most vulnerable - including single mothers,
children and people with medical conditions that require
sophisticated treatment.
U.S. State Department guidelines provide that refugees with serious
life-threatening medical conditions can move to the front of the
line for expedited processing. The fast-track process from referral
to arrival in the United States typically takes around eight to ten
weeks or several months.
The normal processing time for refugees is between 18 to 24 months,
according to the State Department. Lawyers say individual refugee
cases, though, can often drag on for years longer.
HIAS' Monken said her organization had been expecting the arrival of
several refugees with medical conditions to the United States in the
coming weeks who had already started planning their doctors'
appointments and finding apartments.
One Syrian woman in her 20s, who is deaf and mute, was supposed to
arrive in New York in early February and her case is now on
indefinite hold, Monken said. An Iraqi family with a 5-year-old son
who has congenital heart disease was also due to arrive in Michigan
in coming months.
"We see intense medical needs, especially from Syrians, because
their trauma is so fresh, including recent shrapnel wounds and lost
limbs," said Monken.
Officials at the United Nations agency that handles refugees, UNHCR,
are still trying to understand the breadth and implications of the
executive order. The UNHCR said it could not provide a specific
number of how many refugees with medical needs would be affected by
the U.S. ban.
UNHCR's Larry Yungk, a senior resettlement officer in Washington,
said they are speaking with State Department officials and trying to
learn which cases might be exempt from the ban.
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"There are still a lot of unknowns," said Yungk.
Since the halt was announced on Friday U.N. officials and attorneys
for refugees have also worked to identify emergency cases that could
be sent to other countries. But the prospects are not promising.
Canada and several European nations where U.N. officials would
normally reroute cases, including Sweden, Norway and Germany, have
already taken record numbers of refugees in recent years. The
Minister’s Office for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship in
Canada did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"We've informed (the State Department) that there's limited capacity
to resettle these other cases," said Yungk, the UNHCR official.
"There's no way to compensate for all the U.S. placements."
'LOST HOPE' FOR DAUGHTER
One Syrian mother, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution
against her family, said in a telephone interview on Sunday that she
had completed interviews with UNHCR and hoped her 15-year-old
daughter would be accepted for resettlement and surgery in the
United States.
She said the girl, who was also born with a birth defect, was
imprisoned in Syria by government forces with other children four
years ago. The girl was tortured, leaving her with severe injuries
to her hands and jaw, according to her mother.
She was hospitalized in Jordan and received hand surgery there but
the surgery made her condition worse, her mother said. The girl lost
much of the movement in her hand and now needs a more complex
operation.
"I've lost hope that I'll be able to get treatment for my daughter,"
said her mother.
Another refugee needing urgent U.S. medical care is Mohammad
Alkhaled, a six-year-old Syrian boy living in Jordan, according to
Jayne Fleming, a New York-based lawyer who works with refugees.
Fleming said she was working on getting the boy expedited
resettlement in the United States before the halt.
In October, Alkhaled was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma, a type of
cancer that forms in bone or soft tissue. Earlier this month,
Fleming contacted David Tishler, a pediatric oncologist at
Children's Hospital Los Angeles and asked him to review scanned
copies of Alkhaled's medical records.
"Where he is they have very little experience treating cancer, they
don't have the resources," said Tishler. He said that particular
strain of cancer requires a year of intensive chemotherapy in
addition to surgery and radiation, which is extremely expensive.
In cases where the disease is localized, patients with the full
course of treatment have a 70 to 75 percent chance of being alive in
five years and many survive for much longer, said Tishler.
"Without getting additional therapy, he is going to die," Tishler
said.
(Additional reporting by Bushra Shakhshir in Amman; Editing By David
Rohde and Mary Milliken)
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