Obama aims to double global refugee resettlement

The White House will on Thursday rally businesses to give jobs to refugees ahead of a September summit where U.S. President Barack Obama will urge world leaders to boost humanitarian funds by a third and double the number of refugees being resettled.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said on Wednesday that the Obama summit during the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations would also aim to get one million refugee children in school and one million more refugees access to legal work in the neighboring countries they fled to.

“The summit is by no means a panacea; even if we hit every target, our response will still not match the scale of the crisis,” Power told the United States Institute of Peace, adding that it would boost the number of countries trying to help.

She said the United States intended to meet its goal of taking in 10,000 Syrian refugees, out of a total 85,000 refugees this year and slammed calls by some Americans to halt the refugee program following attacks in Paris and Orlando. “Ignorance and prejudice make for bad advisors,” Power said.

[Reuters]

This entry was posted in Humanitarian Aid, International Cooperation by Grant Montgomery.