The Syrian refugees deserve compassion and humanity

The worst refugee crisis since World War II is looming in Europe. The majority of these refugees are from conflict zones like Syria , Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the United Nations. The Syrian refugees are fleeing from a brutal civil war and persecution that has been going on for five years, with no political solution to end it. Syria is in ruins. It is a failed state, and different factions splintered along the sectarian lines, including ISIS militants, are fighting among each other. The Syrian civil war claimed the lives of more than 300,000 people, and 11 million have been  either displaced or refugees , who live refugee camps in neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan.. The Syrian refugees are fleeing for their lives, and they aren’t “economic migrants.”

To reach Europe, the refugees are taking precarious and deadly routes across the Mediterranean Sea and by land in the Balkans. Last month, the Austrian authorities found 71 dead bodies inside an abandoned, unventilated box track on a highway. Most of the victims were fleeing from Syrian conflict. The human smugglers are preying on these desperate refugees, and making money on their humiliation, misery and death.

{mosads}“More than 300,000 people have risked their lives to cross the Mediterranean Sea so far this year. Over 2,600 people didn’t survive the dangerous crossing, including three -year-old Aylan, whose photo stirred the hearts of the world public,” the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres said.

So far, the EU response to the refugees crises is ineffective, feeble, uncoordinated, and lacks compassion. With the exception of Germany, Austria, and Sweden, the rest of EU are not taking any responsibility addressing the refuges crisis. Some countries have said they would only accept Christian refugees. However, Chancellor Angela Merkel showed leadership: Germany is willing to take 800,000 refugees (1 percent of their population) and the asylum application for the refugees would be accepted. However, this week, the German government has ended its open border policy because of the huge influx of the refugees.

But, in Hungary, the right wing government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbar  has responded the  influx of the refugees with hostile, “bigoted and xenophobic,” and inhuman measures, including erecting barbed wires along country’s border with Serbia. For instance, the dramatic video footage coming out from Hungary’s main refugee camp on the border with Serbia is disheartening: the video is showing families, including children being held in what looks like cages, and food being tossed at them “like cows in a pen” by the Hungarian police wearing helmets and hygiene  masks.

Describing the treatment he received from Hungary, a 25 year-old Syrian refugee, Saeed, told Reuters in the Austrian border town of Nickelsdorf, “I escaped from Syria because I wasn’t treated like a person, like a human being there and I came to Hungary and I was treated like an animal,”

The refugee crisis is not only a European problem but an international problem as well. It requires a global effort to share the responsibility for caring and resettling of the refugees. The rich Gulf Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, must involve themselves by contributing to the cost of caring their fellow Arab Muslims. America should also have to take more refugees from Syria and make it easier for them to resettle in America. America’s economy is doing fine. We can afford bringing at least 100,000 Syrian refugees. Most of them are highly educated people, who would require little assistance. And, the decision of Obama administration to bring 10,000 Syrian refugees for resettlement in America is too little, but it’s a step in the right direction.

With the 2016 presidential primaries a few months away, some Republican presidential candidates who want to replace Obama like Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Mike Huckabee are against taking in Syrian refugees, while Gov. Kasich (R-Ohio) supports taking them in.

But absolutely, every Syrian refugee would have to pass a rigorous vetting process and background check to make sure that we are not bringing in terrorists or perpetrators of war crimes in Syria. In fact, according to the Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper, America has a “Pretty aggressive” system for screening the backgrounds of those seeking entry into the United States.

We spent billions waging on unnecessary wars in the Middle East and North Africa, and most of these refugees are fleeing from the violence of those wars. Why can’t America help Syrian and Iraqis refugees, who are living on “abysmal” conditions?

Obama must do the right thing: let more Syrian refugees resettle in America because it’s not only morally right to do so but also they deserve compassion and humanity. The alternative would mean more suffering and death for the refugees, and a win for those who are pandering on fear and bigotry, because most of the Syrian refugees are Sunni Arab Muslims.

But ultimately, the most effective way of dealing with the refugee crisis is addressing the root causes of Middle East conflicts, and finding a robust diplomatic solution to end them so people have a chance to live and work in peace in their own native countries.

Mohamed is the co-founder of the Horn of Africa Freedom Foundation, a grass roots volunteer-based organization based in Lewis Center, Ohio.