President Obama on Tuesday called on world leaders to “open their hearts” to take in tens of millions of refugees displaced from their homes because of violence and persecution around the world.
“Today, now, we have to do more to open our hearts to refugees” who need a home, he told the United Nations General Assembly in New York. “We have to follow through even when the politics are hard.”
The world is facing a refugee crisis like none since World War II, with 65 million refugees displaced worldwide, and 5 million from Syria alone, according to administration figures.
Obama also issued his call just days after terrorist attacks in New York and New Jersey that rekindled fears about how immigrants and refugees might increase the risks of terrorism. But Obama said countries need to see refugees as people who desperately need help.
“We have had to imagine what it would be like for ourselves, for our children, if the unspeakable happened to us,” he said. “We have to understand that ultimately our world will be more secure” if more countries around the world accommodate these refugees.
Some nations, he said, are “doing the right thing” in accepting hundreds of thousands of these displaced immigrants. But “those blessed with wealth and the benefits of geography, that can do more to offer a hand,” should do so even if they insist that refugees who come “to our countries have to do more to adopt to the customs and conventions of the communities that are now providing them a home.”
Obama will spend Tuesday afternoon hosting a Leaders Summit on Refugees aimed at persuading the U.S. and other countries to accept more refugees, including from Syria.
Obama and other officials argue that it can admit the refugees while ensuring U.S. security, but Republicans, including Donald Trump, say it’s impossible to accept the refugees risk-free.
