I think we can all agree we enjoy our life in America, electricity, internet, running water,
no risk of immediate death and the list goes on. Pretty good right? I think we can also agree on
the golden rule, treat others the way you want to be treated, or at least to be helped out in your
time of need. Greys of many different shades define our world with absolutes becoming
increasingly rarer, however you don’t get more black and white then the events folding out in
Syria. Every day 255 people die in Syria, every day 3,579 people are displaced in which half are
children, every day Europe and other countries take less and less refugees. The US, a beacon of
freedom and safety has taken a whopping .006% of these people. This is plain and simple a
disaster, a crisis, a catastrophe.
“No one chooses to be a refugee,” this is the motto of the United Nations refugee agency.
These are the worst upon worst circumstances forced upon people, living in squalor, not being
able to work, not being able to see their family, and living with the constant threat of being taken
advantage of, killed, extorted, robbed, tortured, raped, enslaved, upon so many other perils. On
the UN refugee agency’s website it defines what a refugee is. Many of you already know I’m
sure, but legally, what makes a refugee? The United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention spells out
that a refugee is someone who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of
race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside
the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail
himself of the protection of that country." There are a total of 14.4 million refugees in the world
today, 51% of them being under the age of 18. Developing countries who increasingly can’t
provide for even their own citizens host 86% of refugees
“Anyone who has a gun shoots” Words of a Syrian refugee and father echo the barbarity
of the Syrian conflict today. There are over 10 major factions duking it out for the future of a
country. Which begs a question where do these people go? Not here. Many states are suing the
federal government for trying to resettle refugee families within their borders, or passing laws
saying that they will not help the federal government’s commitment to resettle 10,000 Syrian
refugees in one year. The battle was even taken to Congress with bill H.R 4038 or more
ominously named, “The American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act of 2015” which is
currently in the Senate, would bar most if not all what is left of the American refugee program
I’m sure you all remember the enormously large Powerball jackpot, now imagine instead of
millions of dollars on the line with those balls it’s your life, your brother’s and sister’s lives, and
every other family member you feel close to. This is the case for Syrians seeking refuge in
America “the odds of winning the Powerball are probably better,’’ says David Miliband, head of
the International Rescue Committee. Then what is this process and what makes it so difficult?
First you must become an official refugee through the office of the United Nations High
Commissioner of Refugees, which entails iris scans, 2D passport screening to eliminate fake
passports, dozens of interviews with trained officials with and without their families. To quote
one UNHCR officer “I know where your school is, I know the colors of its walls. This process
can take from a couple of months to a few years. If you are perceived in the top 10% of the
“more venerable” of the 1% eligible for resettlement you are then referred to the US. If you think
the shows over, you are sorely mistaken, we’re only getting started. Another 18-20 months will
be used to process your application, which by the way you’ll be living in a camp or other horrid
conditions. Just to name a few of the agencies you will be dealing with is the: Department of
State, Immigration services, the FBI, National Counter Terrorism Center, Homeland Security,
Department Of Health, five other international organizations, and nine domestic nongovernmental organizations. So if the war is not over in 3 years and you are the one in a million
chosen to be welcomed to America, and not placed on hold for any period of time, all you have
to do is buy your plane ticket, rent an apartment, pay taxes, and send all your children to work.
Before you go destroying the apple cart or in this case the survival of millions, because of
the “bad apples,” of the 784,000 refugees taken in the last four years 5 of them have been
relating to terrorism. That is a .000006% chance of terrorism, and none of these led to actual
attacks. You have more of a chance to be killed by a bee sting than find a refugee that is aligned
with terrorist. In fact you will be struck by lightning TWICE before you can find one refugee
terrorist. I could give you countless other analogies to show how unlikely a terrorist is smuggled
into the US is, but point being, banning on refugees on this premise is like, as the supreme court
eloquently worded it, “burning the house to roast the pig.”
I close with the words of the words of the United Nations General Secretary, Ban Kimoon, “I ask that countries act with solidarity, in the name of our shared humanity, by pledging
new and additional pathways for the admission of Syrian refugees. Accepting refugees is a win
win for everyone.
In a recent vice news report one Syrian man was filmed saying “We don’t know which faction to
listen to anymore, Assad is bombing from one side. Russia from the other. America from
another.” Another one simply states “America has freedom. France has freedom. Turkey has
freedom. But no, Syrians are not allowed to have freedom” As a third man put it “Anyone with a
gun shoots.”