This Chart Shows the U.S. Commitment to Accept 10,000 Syrian Refugees Falls Short of Its Peers
The U.S. commitment to take 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next year will do little to alleviate the crisis.
Under increasing pressure from the humanitarian community, the White House announced Thursday it would take at least 10,000 of the 4.1 million refugees from the four-year civil war in Syria in the next year. That’s much fewer than some had hoped.
Under increasing pressure from the humanitarian community, the White House announced Thursday it would take at least 10,000 of the 4.1 million refugees from the four-year civil war in Syria in the next year. That’s much fewer than some had hoped.
The United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a nongovernmental group, wants President Barack Obama to take in 100,000. It’s also short of the 30,000 figure suggested by Secretary of State John Kerry earlier Thursday. State Department officials said not all of these additions would come from Syria, but many would.
Still, it’s more than Syria’s neighbors plan to accept. Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain have offered no resettlement plans to Syrian refugees, according to Amnesty International.
And it’s clear that the White House’s new commitment does little to solve the refugee problem. Take a look at the chart below. It shows international commitments from five countries — the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, and Venezuela — as well as the proposed number EU members should accept. These promises fall far short of meeting the needs of more than 4 million Syrians trying to escape the horrors of war.
Photo credit: Aris Messinis/Getty Images
David Francis was a staff writer at Foreign Policy from 2014-2017.
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