The ‘humanitarian industrial complex’ is so predictable.
As we mentioned here, here and here in just the last week, they have begun their public relations campaign in lock-step because for some reason (security?) the US is dragging its feet on dropping off thousands of Syrians into your towns and cities.
Human Rights First‘s Eleanor Acer from The Guardian:
…. so far, the American response has been wanting. With more than $1.7bn in aid so far, it is the single largest donor to the Syria humanitarian response, but the United States resettled a mere 36 Syrian refugees in 2013. As of February 2014, the US has resettled only 25 more. That’s a total of 121 since 2011, out of over 2 million refugees.
If the country with the largest resettlement program in the world doesn’t step up, who will?
This January, US officials indicated that the government expects to accept referrals for several thousand Syrian refugees in 2014. But so far, the United States has not announced a commitment to resettling a significant number. Why?
The UK, Bulgaria and Greece setting rotten examples as well.
Acer:
The US isn’t the only state reluctant to welcome some of Syria’s refugees. The UK, for example, announced plans to resettle the modest number of 500 Syrian refugees, but only after public criticism by film stars Colin Firth and Emma Thompson. Other European countries, including Bulgaria and Greece, have even imposed obstacles preventing Syrian refugees from crossing into their countries. Such responses set a poor example for the frontline states, which must keep their borders open to refugees as a requirement of international law and to prevent an even greater humanitarian catastrophe.
The US must lead the way by admitting 15,000 (LOL! the advocates have obviously settled on their magic number!):
It’s clear what is needed: while the international community must devise a comprehensive long-term plan for addressing the refugee crisis, a crucial part of that plan must include sharing the responsibility of hosting refugees.
And the United States should lead this effort. As the world’s richest country, and one that justifiably prides itself on protecting refugees, it needs to be doing much more. This year, the US should aim to resettle at least 15,000 Syrian refugees, and should continue to significantly increase the number it takes in. The credibility of the US and its ability to effectively press other states to increase their own efforts depends on it.
See how they get this number, 15,000, planted in the public discussion and then throw in the “increase the number” later comment. The sad thing is that they did this with the Iraqi ‘refugees’ and succeeded. So unless you speak up and contact your representatives in Washington (the only elected officials with the power to stop this), they will succeed again!
So far, deep in the bowels of the federal government, someone has cold feet about opening the flood gates to Syrians!
Readers: Remember there are still plenty of Syrians getting into the US through other legal and illegal means, but our focus here (in this post) is on the formal Refugee Resettlement program of the US State Department and the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement in Health and Human Services.