US reaches target for resettlement of Syrian refugees
AMMAN // The US will reach its target this week of taking in 10,000 Syrian refugees in a year- old resettlement programme, the US ambassador to Jordan said yesterday, after meeting families going to California and Virginia. The programme has emerged as an issue in the US presidential campaign, with Republican nominee Donald Trump alleging that displaced Syrians posed a potential security threat.
Alice Wells, the US ambassador to Jordan, said that keeping Americans safe and taking in some of the world’s most vulnerable people were not mutually exclusive.
“Refugees are the most thoroughly screened category of travellers to the United States, and Syrian refugees are subject to even greater scrutiny.”
She said the target of resettling 10,000 refugees in the 2016 fiscal year would be reached today, as several hundred Syrians departed from Jordan.
The Jouriyeh family, who attended yesterday’s ceremony, is California-bound to San Diego.
Nadim Fawzi Jouriyeh, 49, a former construction worker from the war- ravaged city of Homs, said he felt “fear and joy, fear of the unknown and our new lives, but great joy for our children’s lives and future.”
Mr Jouriyeh, who suffers from heart problems, is travelling with his wife, Rajaa, 42, and their four children.
Their oldest son, Mohammed, 14, said he was eager to go to school and hoped to study medicine one day.
The resettlement focuses on the most vulnerable refugees, including those subjected to violence or torture or are sick.
Close to 5 million Syrians have fled the civil war that started in 2011. Most struggled to survive in tough conditions in neighbouring countries, including Jordan, which hosts close to 660,000 Syrian refugees.
Only a small percentage of Syrians have been resettled to third countries. Instead, donor countries are trying to invest more in job creation and education for refugees in regional host countries to encourage them to stay there instead of moving.
Ms Wells said the US had taken in more refugees over the years than all other nations combined.