The staggering waves of people forced to flee a ravaged and destroyed Syria — some 4 million in number — are now seeking a place of safety where they can begin to have some semblance of stability and peace. ADVERTISING
The staggering waves of people forced to flee a ravaged and destroyed Syria — some 4 million in number — are now seeking a place of safety where they can begin to have some semblance of stability and peace.
The refugee crisis is not limited to one region of the globe. It is an international humanitarian disaster that demands an international response.
The Obama administration has taken a small but nevertheless welcome step to have the U.S. increase its cap on incoming refugees from 70,000 people a year to 100,000 by 2017.
Human rights advocates have called out this country for doing relatively little to assist Syrian refugees. And given the U.S. role in the destabilization of the Middle East, their arguments are hard to ignore.
A crush of refugees have flooded Turkey; many of them have attempted to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Greece and to trek north into eastern and western Europe.
The uneven response in European countries has created enormous tension. As recently as last weekend, Austria saw 20,000 migrants from the Syrian war come across its border with Hungary.
The crossing through eastern Europe has been difficult, with authorities alternately pushing refugees through as quickly as possible or halting them at borders.
Most of the migrants are working their way to Germany, where they hope to find opportunity.
The United States might be increasing its refugee intake to 100,000 over the next two years. In contrast, Germany expects to take eight times that number this year. One can only imagine the response to such a gesture in this country.
Simply feeding, clothing and sheltering that many people is a challenge, much less providing them social services and determining their long-term status.
It’s worth noting that even as Turkey and western and northern Europe have made enormous efforts on behalf of Syrians, the wealthiest Arab nations have done nothing.
Amnesty International reports that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain have offered zero sites for the resettlement of Syrians and have accepted no refugees.
These are nations that can more than afford to help. They simply aren’t willing to do it, in part because of fears it would destabilize their own fragile and often repressive regimes.
Yet far poorer and far less stable nations like Iraq and Egypt have accepted refugees; nearly 250,000 Syrians have fled to Iraq and another 130,000 to Egypt.
The human calamity that is the Syrian war is echoing across the world now. The painful change it is seeding will be felt for generations in places far from Damascus.
The hope now is that strong nations will be able to soften the impact on displaced people by welcoming them in their time of struggle and helping them find some place in the world where they are safe.
