Some 209 Syrian refugees have arrived in CT since last October 1, according to the State Department.
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President Obama promised to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees in the country and now that day has come.
“The 10,000th Syrian refugee will arrive this afternoon (Monday)”, National Security Advisor Susan Rice announced in a statement. Though the United States has accepted thousands of refugees-and, according to Wells, contributed almost $5.6 billion in humanitarian aid over the past four years-much more remains to be done to help the war-torn country and those who have been displaced.
She noted that refugee admissions represented only “a small part of our broader humanitarian efforts in Syria and the region”.
The Obama administration had set the goal past year as the refugee crisis in Europe had reached its peak and worldwide leaders called on the U.S. to do more to resettle refugees.
The increase in Syrian refugees also comes at a time of heightened national security concerns following extremist attacks in the USA and overseas.
Alice Wells, the US ambassador to Jordan, greets Syrian refugee Hamzeh Jouriyeh, 12, ahead of his departure to the United S.
Arizona and Texas, two red states led by Republican governors who have flat-out said they don’t want Syrian refugees because they supposedly pose a security risk, are next on the list having taken in 766 and 735 people, respectively, the figures show. These organizations are front and center in the campaigns to resettle refugees from Syria and to address the current crisis – the worst humanitarian catastrophe since World War II.
Among the refugees who departed Jordan for the USA on August 29 is the Jouriyeh family. Trump has in the past compared Syrian refugees to snakes and he has advocated a plan to block people from entering the USA from countries with ties to terrorism. The screening process for refugees entering the United States is extremely rigorous and can take from 18 to 24 months – sometimes even longer. “But so many are still trapped in horrific conditions in refugee camps or war zones”, said Amnesty International Senior Director Tarah Demant.
In a reference to the security debate, Wells said that “refugees are the most thoroughly screened category of travelers to the United States”.
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Frank-Juergen Weise, the head of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, said in an interview in the German weekly Bild am Sonntag that he expects a sharp drop in numbers in 2016 compared with a year ago.
