What The Presidential Candidates Have Said About The Syrian Refugee Crisis

President Barack Obama has ordered his administration to prepare for at least 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year, the White House said on Thursday.

A spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency has said he welcomes a US offer to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees, but that Washington “could and should do much more“.

The White House yesterday announced a planned seven-fold increase in the number of Syrian refugees accepted into the United States.

But the vetting process has created huge delays, and in fiscal year 2015, the State Department expects only 1,500 to 1,800 Syrians will have been resettled in the United States. Over just the last weekend, Germany granted access to 20,000 refugees, according to Reuters.

He said that because neighbouring countries, which have absorbed the bulk of the refugees, were now at crisis point, “Europe will be faced with a refugee situation similar to the one that led to the creation of [the UN Refugee Agency] UNHCR in 1950″. Thousands of people have drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean from Libya and thousands more have already made their way across Europe this summer. We know that it certainly is not feasible for millions of Syrians to come to this country.

It now admits a total of 70,000 refugees from around the world annually, and is due to increase that total by 5,000 for the fiscal year starting in October.

Vazquez denied claims by some of the refugees who said they were tricked or that Uruguay promised more than it could deliver. “We need to help the refugees both in Europe but equally important in the countries around Syria who are shouldering the bulk of the burden”.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, Kerry’s predecessor at the State Department, called for an “emergency global gathering” at the United Nations General Assembly meeting this month, where countries could pledge aid money and to accept some of the migrants.

Some 9 million Syrians have been displaced from their homes by war, including an estimated 4 million who have fled the country. “But when pressed, the administration indicated that they were considering opening the floodgates and using emergency authority to go above what they proposed to Congress in today’s consultation”, the Republican lawmaker said in a statement. “We should be ready to respond”, Durbin said.

But Earnest says Obama has decided that admitting more Syrian refugees would help boost the USA response.

Despite the setback, Kanawati said his family plans to launch a new effort to get his relatives resettled in the United States.