Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, who last week compared Syrian refugees to “rabid dogs”, met with refugees in Jordan on Saturday and urged the U.S. government to do more to help but did not endorse bringing them to the US.
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Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel said the Liberals haven’t provided enough financial details about their plan for her to say whether her party would support waiving the payments for Syrians.
Carson visited the Azraq refugee camp Saturday, meeting with Syrians, medical professionals, humanitarian aid workers, and government officials.
Canada, which has said all necessary security checks would be made before refugees are flown in, has sent 500 officials to Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon to oversee the effort.
Jordan has recently asked for three billion US dollars, with which it is able to provide services to Syrian refugees over the next few years.
“They (refugee camps) don’t have enough money”, he said.
“We need to start teaching people how to be more hospitable toward each other…how to actually respect somebody with whom you disagree and have an intelligent discussion”, Carson said. Colyer says the US should work with allies in the region to help Syrians return to their homes, rather than bring a small number to the U.S.
Colyer said that he did not plan on getting involved in the presidential race despite joining Carson on his journey to Jordan.
The U.N. refugee agency says some 628,000 registered refugees are in Jordan, but growing numbers have left regional host countries for Europe. Jordan is now home to 1.4 million refugees from Syria. He also maintained his opposition to admitting Syrian refugees into the United States. “We’re not against Syrians”.
“This is a defining moment for Canada, a defining moment for all of us”, Johnston said.
“We need to do things diplomatically, militarily”, Colyer said.
When they arrived, he says, they were given some advice from neighbours who’d been in Jordan as refugees for years: buy new things.
Colyer, a plastic surgeon, first volunteered with the International Medical Corps in 1985 during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and has continued to work for the organization in conflict zones around the globe in the decades since then.
“What I didn’t hear him talking about, though, was that a political solution is what’s needed”, she said.
“There’s nothing that will turn the momentum off more than if people want to help, and they get no answer at the other end of the phone or they don’t know who to phone”, said McCallum.
Upon concluding his global visit, Carson expressed a new understanding of the men, women and children trying to escape a Syrian civil war.
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A spokesperson for the governor’s office said Colyer paid his own costs for travel in the United States, while the Carson campaign footed the global travel bill.
