Syrian refugees inside the border wait to be approved to get into Jordan, January, 2016. Raad Adayleh/Press Association. All rights reserved.The Syrian civil war has been raging for over five years, with no end in sight. As a result, the world is facing the worst refugee crisis since World War II. The Migration Policy Centre estimates that 11 million Syrians have been displaced since March 2011, with 4.8 million having fled to Syria’s immediate neighbors and 1 million requesting asylum in the European Union. Although the United States has fulfilled President Obama’s pledge of accepting 10,000 Syrian refugees this fiscal year, we should be doing much more.
There are three main reasons to support a more progressive policy. First, the US has a humanitarian obligation to reduce suffering and protect human rights. From an ethical standpoint, this is less controversial than it sounds. Just as individually I ought to help others when I can, collectively we ought to assist those in need through the government that acts on our behalf. To be sure, the US also has obligations to its own citizens – more on that shortly – but the burden of proof is on those who would rebut the presumption that it is a good thing to minimize overall harm. Thus we are prima facie bound by the duty of beneficence. And it is clear that the Syrian people desperately need our help. Since the beginning of the war, the UN estimates that about 400,000 people have died. The Assad regime has done most of the damage, killing and intimidating opponents and perceived opponents of the existing government. The UN and Amnesty International have also accused ISIS, which is fighting against Assad, of committing crimes against humanity: killing civilians and prisoners of war, recruiting child soldiers, engaging in sexual slavery, and persecuting ethnic and minority religious groups. With Russia supporting Assad through airstrikes, civilians are caught in the crossfire.
Even Syrians who have successfully escaped the country face hardships elsewhere. Europe and the Middle East are struggling to process the millions of refugees, leading to makeshift camps with little security and substandard shelter, food, and water. For example, cash-strapped Greece has become a gateway for refugees into Europe, and at the current rate, it will take them 20 years to process them all. Meanwhile, refugees live in conditions that the Greek interior minister, Panagiotis Kouroublis, has said are as bad as a Nazi concentration camp, “a modern day Dachau.” By accepting more Syrian refugees, the US could alleviate some of these problems.
