Transcripts For ALJAZAM Inside Story 20150916

Larger settlement down the road or a major world power coming late to the game . Thats the inside story. Welcome to inside story. Im ray suarez. Before the syrian war began, syria had 22 million residents. And today, something approaching half of those residents have been driven from their hopes. Civilians have been killed by the hundreds of thousands during the fighting, and major cities have ben carson simply unliveable. So millions have fled, men and women, young and old, crossing into jordan and lebanon, ands youve seen, many are crossing the mediterranean, in boats, trying to get to europe. The United States has not been part of the refugee debate, instead with military action, trying to dislodge alassad from power, and isil. And many have shown to be overwhelmed. Hungary is confining refugees, sealing off borders, and even using soldiers and water cannon and teargas to keep them from moving inside of the country. And now hesitantly, the United States is joining those already immersed in the refugee crisis with a small opening for those fleeing syria. Talking to syrians in america about the horrors back home. We are disappointed, very. Reporter zahir al watter is giving up on the u. S. Government. We first met this Syrian American in 2013, trying to find solas in his ohio garden, between frustrating calls to the u. S. State department. This is zahir al watter, and im an american from syria, and i would like to get my brother and his family from syria to here. For weeks, he made the same plea, trying to rescue his family. I am in need of your help, so please give me a call back. Thank you very much. Reporter now, two years later, after failing to get any help from the federal government, his sister is among the dead refugees. She perished trying to escape syria with her two children. Like thousands of others, she paid a smuggler to help them across the sea, hoping to reach sweden. Once they got to the first island, my sister was getting really sick, and once they hit the land, on the way to the hospital she passed away. She died. Why was that so important for your sister to get her kids to europe . Because theres no place for them. They can not walk, they cannot go to school. She was a to give anything she can to get them to the safety. Al watter, is not alone. His group of syrianamerican friends in columbus, ohio, meet often to discuss the conflict. The lack of american intervention, and fears for eir family members still living in the war zone. Reporter do you think that youll ever go back to syria . Once we get that dictator out. You want to go back . I will go back to help. Reporter hoping more of his family doesnt die waiting. Adam may, aljazeera, columbus, ohio. Today has been a frantic day in europe as syrians flow across some borders, stopped at others, and welcomed in some places, and shot with water cannon in others. The United States is making its first tentative entries into that part of the crisis now, and here to talk about it, the Senior Vice President of Global Engagement for immigrants. He directed the office of Refugee Resettlement under president obama. If you are in trouble somebody in the world, and you want to come to the United States, compared to other places, is it easy or hard to get into this country . Its actually quite difficult to come to this country. You know, there are fewer ways to come to this country through a process, that could sometimes take up to two years, and sometimes may take up to ten years, so the process is not easy. If you have 60 million refugees, and if you bring in either 10,000 or 70,000, thats just a drop in the sea, so the process is not easy. It requires a lot of security clearance,s so its not an easy process. Were known around the world for taking in large numbers of immigrants, and how is it different if youre a refugee. Refugees are coming mostly from refugee camps and immigrants are coming for employment or they have family here, and so the process is different. So the refugees are going through a completely different process than immigrants coming to this country. Having said that, since 1975, we have resettled over 2 million refugees, and in 198 on 0, we resettled over 200,000 refugees from the war in vietnam. So we have a long history of settling refugees in this country in our history. Im glad that you mentioned the war in vietnam. Because a lot of people in the United States in and around Southeast Asia did come here. But in we were to compare the number of people able to come legally from afghanistan and iran where the United States has been fighting for years, is that a large number. Im not sure that its a large number, but the good thing, any iraqi working with the u. S. Government is going through the process of coming here. And i think that we managed to bring in a large number of iraqis or afghanis, and fact, we came up with a special visa for them. They have been complaining that the process is very slow, and its dangerous when theyre back in afghanistan and considered collaborate. I agree with you, and we have been expanding the process, and some of the folks are already working for the u. S. Government. So we have a much better understanding of who they are, but post911, the security process, makes it very difficult to have a Quick Deployment of and processing it immediately after that. This is a story that you understand, not only from the point of view of a government official, but you lived this, didnt you . Absolutely. I was a refugee myself. And i came into the country in 1982. But between 1982 and 2001, its a completely different process. I must say that we have a history of refugees, as i mentioned, and as a refugee in 1980, we have taken in 2 million refugees from so many places. From bosnia and iran and some other places. So i think that one. Things that people dont understand, refugees are probably the most people to come to this country. What kind offer security . Security, restitution, and they have a well founded fear of prosecution, and theres a lot of interview beings, and homeland security, involved in the screening process. Stay with us, and well hear later from you in the program. If europe and the United States coordinate with syrias neighbors in a more systematic response in a currently out of control situation, i realize thats a big if. Should countries be prepared to house, feed, support, school refugees enter months, years, permanently . And if you welcome and help desperate, victimized people, must you be preparedton only shelter them for a time, but for a very long haul . Who is my neighbor . Its the inside story. Suv seen the pictures, and heard the stories. So many left behind everything to seek shelter elsewhere, even at the risk of their own lives. Borders are closing to refugees all over easterner and southerner europe, and now the United States, far from the fighting, has made a commitment to take 10,000 people fleeing the fighting in syria, but are they welcome in america . To hear one man, who commands an audience of millions, the answer might be no. Under the headline the dramatic muslim invasion, heres foxs bill oreilly. Finally, hundreds of thousands of migrants will find their way to north america. Its just a matter of time. So heres the bottom line. If the usa and europe continue to blunder in the face of the jihad and tolerate brutal dictators like the iranian, the world will devolve into continual conflict and humanitarian disaster, theres no question about it. One voice of certainty, in a crisis where there are more questions than answers. Who is my neighbor . This time on the program. And were now joined by the director of communications for the Syrian American forum. Dr. Musa, do you expect to hear more of that kind of talk . The threat of Syrian Refugees in the United States before we actually see any arrive here . Yes, i do expect plenty of that. And as a matter of fact, its our fear in our organization that this horrific humanitarian issue in syria is being politicized, and its being used for political advantage. Its similar to what we have when the mexicans cross the borders, saying that plenty of cities are damaged in syria, but the fact of the matter still exists that there are plenty of cities that are still inhabited, and people are living well in syria, the displaced people inside of syria is way, way higher number than people leaving the country. We would like to think if the United States wants to help them, theyre better off helping them in syria than as an organization, or public americans, to help our family in there. To send dollars to support them rather than leaving the country and being a problem for the whole world. We expect them to make it a political issue, and thats not what we want it to be. Who should seek safety in the United States . There are a lot of Syrian Americans. Should they get the first cut at this opportunity . People who already have relatives in the United States . Its a good possibility. If people are in need, we should help all of the people in need. Whether its in syria, or iraq, but the fact of the matter still exists. If we help them stay in their country, it far outweighs if they come here. We welcome Syrian Americans here, and we ask our government to help them, but nevertheless, we should stop bombing them. The kurds killed this evening, and the turkish shores, was not in the area where the government is. He was in kobane, where isis was hidden, and the fact of the matter, his father took his body to his hometown, and he was able to take him there and bury him there, and have a ceremony in there. So we can help people to stay in their hometown and help them to live there, rather than taking them out of the country. Nevertheless, when they reach out, yes, we are required to help them. And the Syrian Americans are ready to help them. Syrians and Syrian Americans in the United States are very well organized and active. Take us behind the scenes. Are there a lot of conversations with the members of congress, members of the senate, the executive branch, and the state department . Whats going on that we dont see daytoday . We are well organized and we try to talk to everybody, and when we talk to them, its definitely a topic that we need to discuss. But we need to change the government and the regime in syria is overweighing every other effort that we would like to achieve. We would like to see it how it is. No matter who is in charge, syrians should talk to each other with the help of the International Community and stop making it a political issue. Youve seen your report with zahir that said that he would go back only if the dictator leaves. This is the problem. What were doing with the humanitarian issue. Its a humanitarian issue. We dont have to take out a president before things can be better for people. Lets talk about it, loyalist, and opposite party, humanitarian issues are human issues, and nevertheless, we would like to have president obama and the administration look at the issue as a humanitarian and not a political issue, and allow the syrians to talk to each other, and we dont have to interfere with syrians affairs, and let them make peace. Were going to continue this conversation in just a minute. Lets be clear, its not just syria sending people fleeing over borders and into other conflicts. People are trying goat out of libya, sudan, too many places in the world that are dangerous to people who live in them. Not only the law, but morally, whats the difference between a syrian whose hometown lies in rubble, a libyan who fears that faction fighting might kill him. And those who cant make a living. Who is my neighbor . Welcome back to inside story, im ray suarez. The people who paid smugglers, climbed into unseaworthy boats for perilous journeys, to turkey and the greek island of lezbos. Talk of thing to work and thing to know their children are not in constant danger. Theres a sizeable tent city in the french port city of calais, a grab bag of people all over the world, ready to risk their lives to get across the channel and into a britain that does not want them. Im joined by the u. S. Committee for refugees and immigrants, and joining the conversation, jim hanson, the executive Vice President of the center for security policy. Jim hanson, should the United States be open to taking in refugees from the middle east wars . In a very cautious manner, be possibly. Were not screening refugees as they come into this country currently. Theres the Refugee Resettlement program of which he was a director, and the firm that he works for now is a contractor, and brings in a lot of refugees as he mentioned but theyre not getting screened to anything near the level to ensure that were not bringing countries into the country. And an fbi director testified to congress that were completely unable in the current state to be able to vet the Syrian Refugees and ensure that the bad guys are not infiltrating among them. What do you mean when you say bringing problems into the country . Terrorists, islamics who do not agree with our constitution, and believe that islamic law should be supreme. When if you look at a lot of the populations, a lot of those from the islamic countries believe that shammic law should be supreme over the u. S. Constitutions, and they would much prefer their islamic law to u. S. Law. Thats a problem, and worse, isis has said that theyre trying right now to infiltrate as many jihaddists into europe and the United States as they can. What a perfect vehicle if we cant screen them or investigate them. And we cant even find allies to fight isis, let alone the people coming in, if they have associations and what those are and if they should be allowed in the country. We heard dr. Musa talk about thing to make syria the place where people can go home to, and they wont be refugees any longer. What about temporary respite . Is that naive . If youre going to do temporary, youre looking at turkey and jordan and lebanon where the bulk of the refugees are now, and its probably a much better idea to go ahead and provide a higher level of services and take the resources were going to do, and instead of trying to repopulate the worlds refugees to the United States, lets help them where they are, and why not attack the root causes . Why not take care of agency add and isis and the people causing the problem as opposed to saying, lets move everybody out of syria because its an awful place to live right now. Arent we talking about problems that are going to take years to fix . And refugees who need help right now . I dont think that its a problem thats hard to fix. I think that if mr. Hanson starts training people to fight assad and sending them to syria, there wouldish no problem in syria. I think politicizing the issue is always a serious problem. We have a country that has a president everybody is happy with, and they elected him as a president. Why are we sending people to fight that president . If we elected him, there would be no refugees. In damascus now, there are more than 2 million syrians that moved to damascus, and the assad regime is taking care of them. Theyre giving them shelter, food, schools, and we encourage people to move there. We tell them we will give them money in germany and scandinavian countries, so people move there. Thats not the way to solve the problem. The way to solve it is by stopping terrorism. We keep saying that its a bad person thats in the governments of that country, and its not going to solve anything. These are people electing their own president , and because we dont like the president , we train people to fight the regime, and obviously we are going to end up with a problem. Obviously as americans, we dont want them to come here, and we dont want them to come from the country and be minorities. We keep encouraging them to go out of the country, and obviously its not the solution, and obviously we need to stabilize the country by not interfering, and by allowing syrians to talk with each other and this is how the problem gets solved very fast. I want you to respond to the problem of screening. Is it hard to do . I can tell you that refugees are currently the most Vulnerable People to come to this country. We have a screening system, and we have resettled refugees. As dr. Musa says, prior to the crisis, the United States used to bring 2 million refugees, so the mongering that mr. Hanson is talking about is totally unfounded. We have, and i will say this again and again. We have the most vetted people coming to the country are refugees, and we have a history of resettling, and we have a history of providing services, and my agents are not the factor. I came here in 1980, and prior to that, we resettled thousands of hungarians. So the idea that the the governor contracts are totally bogus, and i can tell that you the refugee issue in this country, everyone is settled in a community. And supported by the community. And in terms of their contribution to the Refugee Program is compared to what the community provides, 10 . Of the u. S. Committee for immigrants, and jim hanson, executive Vice President for the center of security policy. This conversation must continue, because this problem will continue. Ill be back in a moment with a final thought on leaving home. Its inside story. Hoping that lots of people will simply go home when there are no longer homes to go back to is a vein hope. People will do, we have seen, what they need to do to get themselves and their families out of threatening conditions, and not as a first resort, but as something closer to the last. When you look at bombed out blocks, shocks of dead civilians and bombed out shops, its no surprise that people will flee. But the people who want to control syria are ready to fight for the last syrian. What is it that you will control if you win that war . An endless pile of rubble . Ruined factories and plants . Once Great Centers of learning, commerce, religious devotion. Stripped of people. And in any way of living a normal life . The Syrian Civil War is a problem all right, but now, all of these years in, its no longer a problem that will be solved by stopping the war, but only one that will get more complicate today we expect people to leave the state of of a foreign refuge to go home to ruins. I hope that youre ready for a much longer war, but on an even more difficult peace. Im ray suarez and thats inside story. This is aljazeera america. Live from new york city. Im tony harris. Violence at the hungarian border escalates. 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