Donald Trump’s Travel Ban Has Put Their Lives On The Line

United States (US) president, Donald Trump’s travel ban may be harvesting more negative consequences than can be imagined.

For a start, it has put the lives of these vulnerable ones on the line, report shows.

They need to travel to the US for a lifesaving surgery, but their country is amongst those affected by the Donald Trump’s travel ban.

The dilemma has forced a US doctor who has operated on Haitian children to go on his knees, pleading for humanitarian exception so those children’s lives could be saved.

They are not the only ones at risk, leaders of an aid organisation interested in the health condition of Haitian children say.

It has sent more than 100 with serious cardiac conditions to the U.S. for heart surgery, but if the Donald Trump’s administration’s travel ban takes effect on Monday, it may spell disaster for such children.

The International Cardiac Alliance’s total waitlist for Haitians, ranging from infants to young adults, totals at least 316 people who need heart surgery, said Executive Director Owen Robinson.

He adds that some are placed in hospitals in the Dominican Republic and occasionally the Cayman Islands. But there are currently five open surgical slots in the U.S.

“Some of them might be able to wait a few months, and others, if they don’t go now, they’re going to pass away very quickly,” Robinson said.

The president’s executive order adds that the secretary of state can issue exemptions for visas in cases that “serve a United States national interest.”

“It is unclear if clients of the International Cardiac Alliance with medical needs would fit into that description. Neither the White House nor the State Department responded to a request for comment on the matter.

“We do have kids die every week waiting because there’s not a lot of international slots for these kids,” Robinson said.

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According to an NBC report, some of the children in the program travel directly from their home country to the U.S., undergo surgery, and then return to Haiti.

But for many Haitians, international travel requires multiple levels of logistical wrangling, Robinson said. Some patients and their parents who can secure surgeries in other countries must apply for a visa to the U.S., travel here, and then head to their eventual destination. The Donald Trump’s travel ban now throws a wrench in that process, the report added.