Obama Wants To Welcome 10,000 Syrian Refugees This Year

The United States is taking its turn in the migrant crisis that has shaken Europe. Anxious to help European nations provide aid to Syrian refugees, Barack Obama has announced that the U.S. is prepared to welcome at least 10,000 Syrian refugees next year, according to the White House.

According to the American leader, the U.S. will host around 1,500 Syrian refugees at the end of the current fiscal year, which occurs at the end of September. Barack Obama has asked his team “to scale up that number … to accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next fiscal year,” which begins Oct. 1, stated Josh Earnest, his spokesman. The State Department had previously spoken of a number of between 5,000 and 8,000 for fiscal year 2016.

American Passivity in the Migrant Crisis Criticized

Earlier in the day during a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill, Secretary of State John Kerry indicated that the total number of refugees supported by the United States could reach more than 100,000 in 2016, compared with 70,000 this year. The secretary of state also stated, however, that the 30,000 refugees welcomed this year would not all be Syrians.

The president’s stance on this issue comes as voices have made themselves heard in recent days in diplomatic and humanitarian circles criticizing the passivity of Americans, who nevertheless have a historical tradition of welcoming refugees.

Also yesterday, the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, called on EU member countries to reach an agreement by next week to allocate 160,000 refugees who have arrived in Greece, Italy, and Hungary.