In response to the widely publicized photo documenting the tragic drowning of three year-old Aylan Kurdi, some European countries are welcoming Syrian refugees with open arms.
Should the United States do more to help Syrian refugees? More than a few experts, including New York Times columnist, Nicholas Kristof say yes.
Kristof points to well-known refugees Albert Einstein and Madeline Albright - and also to his own father, who he says fled Romania after WWII.
Kristof goes on to quote the head of UN’s refugee agency António Guterres, who blames the Syrian crisis in part on a worldwide “failure of leadership” in response to a crisis Guterres says is still “manageable” with “political commitment and will.”
Since this crisis has become what the Guardian calls “the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era,“ the US has accepted only about 1,500 Syrian refugees.
Even considering US monetary aid to Syria and the increased projected number of refugees the US plans to accept in 2016, US efforts are still “pathetically inadequate compared both to the scale of the disaster” and what European countries are contributing, adds the Guardian.
Sign this petition to ask President Obama to provide increased support and asylum to Syrian refugees.
President Obama,
The US can and should do more to support Syrian refugees.
[Your comments will be added here]
UK-based media outlet The Guardian characterizes the US selection process for accepting refugees as "unintelligible and inaccessible," - even "mind boggling." The US set a 2015 quota of 70,000 refugees. Yet Syrians -- who are now the largest refugee population in the world -- are minimally represented in this group.
America may well look back with regret if the country's leaders fail to help. The US was remiss prior to WWII and turned away Jewish refugees, some of whom subsequently died in Nazi prison camps. The Holocaust Encyclopedia raises another concern:
"The German Foreign Office and the Propaganda Ministry also hoped to exploit the unwillingness of other nations to admit large numbers of Jewish refugees to justify the Nazi regime's anti-Jewish goals and policies both domestically in Germany and in the world at large."
In light of this history and the complex nature of the conflict in Syria, the US and other nations who currently place unreasonable restrictions on providing asylum to refugees, should consider the far-reaching ramifications of such policies.
The Guardian adds that US projected plans to "resettle between 5,000-8,000 Syrian refugees in 2016" is shameful in comparison to Germany’s announcement that it expects to take 800,000.
President Obama, the need is great. Please do whatever you can to champion increased US support of Syrian refugees.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
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