Western countries urge more US response on refugee crisis (only about 1,000 Syrians have been resettled in America)

European politicians and U.S. aid groups have called for U.S. policy changes to take in more refugees in wake of the biggest refugee crisis for Europe since the end of WWII.

The photo of a Syrian toddler washed ashore after being drowned along with his five-year-old brother and mother in a ill-fated journey to Greece had stirred the hearts of people around the world last week.

Media and netizens are questioning what has turned the carefree toddler to another heart-sinking victim in the worsening crisis of migrating refugees around the Mediterranean.

According to the International Organization for Migration, 2,500 migrants have died so far this year while attempting to reach Europe by boat.

U.S. refugee advocacy groups have recently been receiving an influx of emails from Syrian refugees asking for their help in getting to America.

"The emails are desperate, begging, pleading," Stacie Blake, director of Government and Community Relations for the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, told BuzzFeed News.

Blake said he received 10 mails in a day, which she said "may not seem like a lot, but if you think of the person who has the wherewithal, internet access, and the English to track me down through the website and ask for myself, it's pretty astonishing."

"But the government isn't letting us help them," said Blake.

• Official figures show that only about 1,000 Syrians have been resettled in America this fiscal year, compared with 4 million who fled their war-torn home country.

Syria, which has been mired into full-blown civil war for the past four years because of persistent Western intervention, ranks atop the largest source of refugees bound for Europe in both 2013 and 2014. In the first half of this year, the war-torn country still topped the list.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is pushing for 65,000 refugees from Syria alone to be settled in the U.S. by the end of 2016.

Talking about the U.S. role in the Syrian refugee crisis, IRC President David Miliband said "in the four years of the Syria crisis, there has been inertia rather than leadership."

German opposition politicians have blamed western countries, the United States in particular, for being the main cause of the refugee crisis.

"Western countries under the leadership of the United States have destabilized entire regions by making terrorist organizations, among other things, possible and exploit them," said Sahra Wagenknecht and Dietmar Bartsch, deputy parliamentary group leaders of Germany's main opposition party Die Linke in a position paper due to be presented on Monday.

They said gangs of murderers, such as the Islamic State (IS), were indirectly supported and supplied with money and weapons by countries allied with Germany, which has brought millions of people into brutal wars and civil wars.

Wagenknecht and Bartsch urged the German government to ask the U.S. government to foot the bill for the crisis it has caused.

In addition, the two politicians called for an immediate end to German arms exports and for an increase of Germany's development aid as well as its contribution to the World Food Program, in a bid to address the causes of people fleeing war-torn countries. 
  Xinhua - china.org.cn
7/9/15
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• Assad Resignation Essential for Victory Over ISIL/ISIS (US Department of State)

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• Turkish PM slams refugee policy of 'Christian fortress Europe'

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• France considers air strikes on ISIS in Syria

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