US must step up more for Syrian refugees
US President Barack Obama has directed his team to prepare to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next fiscal year.
This is a major scaling up compared to the just 1,500 Syrian refugees it has accepted since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011.
It is indeed a positive step by the US. However, it is only a small step. Although the US may think it has tried hard, the world is not satisfied.
The UN refugee agency on Friday welcomed the US move, but said the new offer is still far from enough given the scale of people fleeing war in Syria, and the US "could and should do much more."
David Miliband, former British foreign secretary who currently heads the New York-based International Rescue Committee, has called on the US to take 65,000 Syrian refugees next year.
It is true that accepting more than 10,000 refugees from the war-torn Middle East at once will be painful for the US. But it is necessary for the US to accept this pain.
The humanitarian crisis is a result of Syrian civil war. The US is aware that it has played a major role in causing the war.
Although the US government and media are reluctant to reflect on this, taking in the refugees will help them rethink the US policies in the Middle East.
In recent years, the US has been encouraging color revolutions in non-Western countries. The US government, its media and civil society have been supporting and sometimes guiding the unrest in these countries.
The US gestures have worsened the situation in some chaotic areas. It is important for Washington to withdraw its support for color revolutions, especially in the Middle East and North Africa regions.
Some US Republican politicians are opposed to accepting refugees, saying potential terrorists could enter the US territory along with the refugees. European countries and other countries which take in refugees also have this concern, but they still opened their doors.
The US should shoulder its responsibility and deal with its concerns.
The refugee crisis this time has broken the border lines of European countries. To some extent, it may encourage future refugees to flow to the developed countries.
If the US and the EU want to cool down the refugee crisis and prevent a new crisis, they will need to strive to reduce the sources of regional chaos and military conflicts.
The ongoing humanitarian crisis has indicated that the interests of the developed countries are entangled with the war-torn countries.
It will become less likely that the developed countries can keep major upheavals in the less-developed countries from affecting them.
