Syrian Refugees
Syrian Refugees One of the biggest questions in the United States right now is should Syrian refugees be allowed to come into the country? and through research I have found that 53% of American voters believe that yes Syrian refugees should be allowed to come into the U.S. President Obama has recently declared that the United States will accept 10,000 Syrian refugees because the U.
S has been under pressure from its Syrian allies to help out with the crisis in which about three million refugees have fled from Syria in the past year. People who are not in favor of the U.S accepting Syrian refugees argue that the United States should stay out of this crisis and if we do choose to accept these immigrants we run the risk of letting terrorists into our borders. A bit of background information on what is going on in Syria is there is a civil war happening, one side is the soldiers who support the president Bashar al-Assad and the other side is the rebels who do not want Bashar to be in power anymore. The Syrian civil war has been going on for over five years and it has claimed the lives of more than a quarter of a million people. The war started in 2011 in a city called Deraa and it began because 15 schoolchildren were arrested and reportedly tortured for writing anti-government graffiti on a wall and because of that the local people started protesting.
The protests were all peaceful at first, they called for democracy, the releasing of the children, and for a greater freedom for the country but the Syrian government responded with the army opening fire on the protesters ultimately killing four people. The following day they shot at the mourners at the victims’ funerals which resulted in the death of another person. The people were shocked and angry and soon the unrest spread to other parts of the country and ultimately in July of 2012 the Red Cross said that the violence in Syria had become so widespread that it was in a state of civil war. Currently in Syria people are being forced to escape the country and either go to neighboring ones like Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, or Lebanon. Some people in Syria are also trying to make their way to Europe because countries in Europe have promised to accept them so that they can start new lives.
In September of 2015 a report showed Germany welcoming hundreds of refugees and the Prime Minister of the UK, David Cameron, said that the UK will accept up to 20,000 refugees by 2020. France has also said that they will take in 24,000 people. The conflict in Syria has caused one of the biggest refugee movements in recent history. Lots of countries have tried to help through sending supplies like water, food, and medical aid but the U.S and Britain said that they are going to stop because the rebels are stealing those supplies and they don’t support the rebels.
For now discussions continue between powerful nations like Russia, the United States, Britain, and France for ideas on how to achieve peace in Syria. In Aleppo which is a city in Syria rebel fighters have launched an offensive to kick out government forces so that they can gain control over Northern Syria and right now Aleppo is divided roughly in half. The soldiers that are loyal to the president have started entering people’s houses and shooting them on the spot and on Monday the soldiers killed 82 people which included 13 children, and 11 women. The Syrian army said on Tuesday night that they could “declare full control over east Aleppo at any moment” as they made advances against the rebels that are still holed up in some of Aleppo’s neighborhoods. About 80,000 people are now trapped in the few square miles of east Aleppo.
Citizens and social media activists have started making videos that they call “last messages” on social media which are basically saying how they don’t know if they will live another day and they are also saying that the United Nations and the International community is satisfied with their deaths and that what is going on in Aleppo right now is a genocide and that the world needs to start paying more attention. The government assault on Aleppo has been backed by heavy artillery fire and airstrikes that have claimed the lives of 463 civilians, including 62 children killed in eastern Aleppo since mid-November. The conflict still continues everyday with people waking up and brushing their teeth to the sound of bombs not knowing if today might be their last day. We said “never again” to the Holocaust and then again when the 8,373 innocent lives were taken in Srebrenica in the mid 90’s so why isn’t anyone doing anything about what is going on Syria? Countries need to start opening up their borders to help these people for the sake of humanity or if they refuse to open their borders they should at least send in troops to help the innocent lives that are being taken away everyday. International borders should not be an issue when thousands of lives have been taken away for something that could have been prevented, it is our duty as humans and as citizens of Earth to help others in need especially through a genocide.
No human should ever have to make a “last call” video because humanity has given up on them, people need to feel secure and safe which is the complete opposite of what is happening in Aleppo right now. The world needs to come together to end the suffering that these people are facing and just because it doesn’t directly influence our daily lives does not mean that it’s not an issue that needs to be addressed. The United States should allow for these refugees to come in because it is the humane thing to do, I understand that there is the risk that a terrorist could be let into the country but many of these families are in need of desperate help and they pose no threat to the United States, not to mention the fact that there are so many orphaned children that would benefit so much from being brought here and living a normal life that consists of going to school and being a child. I hope that the world does not turn these people away because it would mean that humanity is completely gone and I also hope that peace can be achieved in Syria because the aftermath of a war is almost worse than the war itself.
