World
U.S. Urged to Do More as Britain, France Offer to Take in 44,000 Syrian Refugees
In an Aug. 2012 file photo, General Babacar Gaye, head of the United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS), gives a news conference in Damascus, Syria. (AP Photo/Salman Muzaffar, File)
(New York Daily News) – France and Britain offered to welcome a combined 44,000 Syrian refugees over the next five years, as a former State Department official said the U.S. needs to do more.
Nicholas Burns, the former U.S. ambassador to NATO, said America has historically offered refuge for migrants during a crisis.
Amnesty International estimates that 4 million refugees have fled war-torn Syria. The U.S. has so far accepted 1,500 of the refugees. That number is expected to rise to 8,000 in 2016.
“We’re the wealthiest country in the world,” Burns told CNN Monday. “We’re an immigrant nation. We’re a refugee nation. . . . The United States needs to do much more.”
