The Trump administration’s travel ban on refugees entering the U.S. includes “people with potentially deadly — yet treatable — illnesses,” reports Kevin Sieff in the Washington Post (Dec. 26, 2017).

“Some refugees with severe medical conditions have already died while waiting for the admissions to resume, advocates say,” writes Sieff.

The article profiles several refugees who are being directly affected by the U.S. refugee policy.

In a Dec. 28 article, Sieff details his visits to a refugee camp in Kenya.

A research paper published in Science magazine “suggests that weather shocks are spurring people to seek asylum in the European Union,” the New York Times reports.

“The researchers found that over a 15-year period, asylum applications in Europe increased along with ‘hotter-than-normal temperatures’ in the countries where the asylum seekers had come from,” writes Somini Sengupta.

Sengupta notes that under international law, only those who have fled their countries because of war or persecution are entitled to refugee status. “People forced to leave home because of climate change, or who leave because climate change has made it harder for them to make a living, don’t qualify,” she writes.

But refugee advocates “fear that if the 1951 refugee treaty were opened for renegotiation, politicians in various countries would try to weaken the protections that exist now.”

The research paper is available here.

Comparing migrants to Mary and Joseph, Pope Francis urged Roman Catholics to remember the plight of millions of migrants “driven from their land,” during Christmas Eve Mass.

“So many other footsteps are hidden in the footsteps of Joseph and Mary. We see the tracks of entire families forced to set out in our own day. We see the tracks of millions of persons who do not choose to go away, but driven from their land, leave behind their dear ones,” Francis said.

Pope Francis in August released “a 20-point action plan to governments on refugees and migrants to try to galvanize their response to an issue seen by the Vatican as one of the biggest global challenges of the 21st century” (the Guardian, Aug. 21, 2017).

In 2016, Francis created the Vatican’s migrants and refugees section. The section’s website notes that it “helps the Church worldwide to support those who are forcibly displaced by conflict, natural disaster, persecution or extreme poverty; those who are making their difficult way to safety or are stuck; and those who fall victim to human trafficking.”

Australia has accepted the first group of refugees from Central America under a prior agreement made with the Obama Administration.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/first-30-central-american-refugees-arrive-in-australia-after-fleeing-gang-violence-20171216-h05s4p.html

Meanwhile, the Trump Administration has agreed to honor a prior agreement reached between President Obama and Australia to accept into the U.S. refugees who were refused entry into Australia, with a key modification ….those accepted will not include refugees from the list of countries included under Trump’s travel ban.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/dec/15/second-cohort-of-nauru-and-manus-refugees-to-be-resettled-in-us