About 50 million children — or roughly one in every 45 kids in the world — are currently displaced globally, many of whom have been uprooted by violent wars and persecution. Some are called “refugees.” Others are called “migrants.” Some have been memorialized in splashy photos of lifeless bodies found adrift in the Mediterranean Sea. Still other children barely make it out alive, too young to understand the machinations of war, but now too aware to escape trauma.
Females and children are outpacing the number of men fleeing Syria, Afghanistan, and other destabilized countries for the first time since the European Union experienced a swell of migrants and refugees on its shores. Female migration has steadily increased over the past few years, though the European Union has not provided additional protections for this vulnerable population.
The Canadian government fulfilled a promise on Monday that it would resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees, just two months later than the originally proposed deadline. The program was launched in November 2015 after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took office and was set to be completed before the turn of the new year. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama vowed to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees for the 2016 fiscal year (which starts in October 2015). Since that date, however, the United States has only accepted 841 Syrian refugees.
Canada Took In More Syrian Refugees In Four Months Than The U.S. Will By The End Of 2016
A group of Australian churches are taking a bold step to protect refugees from sexual assault, defying their federal government by harboring asylum seekers who are at risk of being deported to a island detention center allegedly rife with abuse and rape.
There’s been a lot to say about the world’s humanitarian responsibility toward Syrian refugees this week. The global call to help Syrians has been heard loudly and many countries have recently altered their policies. Nonetheless, concerns remain over the impact of receiving so many new people into countries.
Four and a half years after the start of the civil war in Syria, 4
million refugees have fled their homeland. As the situation deteriorates
at home and in neighboring countries, many have looked beyond Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan to Europe. This year alone, at least 2,400 have died at sea.
A photograph of a deceased Syrian boy who drowned in the
Mediterranean and washed ashore on the Turkish coast shook the world
Wednesday. A shot of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi’s little body resting
face-down went viral on social media and Thursday it adorned the front
page of most British newspapers.
