Refugees are people just like all of us, however, due to unavoidable circumstances; they are forced to leave their homes and countries to look for safety and security. Most of them are usually fleeing wars, persecution, and conflict. Refugees are protected by the International laws and should not be taken back to the inhumane situations they are running from.
The trump administration planned on admitting 45,000 refugees in the United States of America, in 2018. This is the lowest number that any administration has ever admitted to the country since the admission system was established in 1980. This decision made humanitarian groups blast and accused the government of America of deserting moral authority. However, from an interview carried out by Reuters, two officials said that the safety of American people comes first and the administration was coming up with developments to vet the refugees which are aligned with President Trump’s orders1. Interestingly though, during the presidential campaigns, President Trump issued a hardline stance on immigration. This was evident from Trump saying that immigrants, who flew from their Syria because of war, pose a security threat to Americans. The president also spoke of building a wall between Mexico and the United States. After joining the office, President Trump proposed a refugees’ cap of 50,000 yet now the cap is reduced to 45,000 people which are less than half of the Obama’s administration and the refugees’ advocates who proposed 75,000 people1. Refugees’ advocates and Humanitarians will tell you that what makes America great is values and moral authority and that this refugees’ cap reduces those values. This statement was supported by the Democrats, while the Republicans said that the cap was to help bring the refugees numbers to be manageable1.
America allowed a number of 200 refugees rejected by the Australian government to settle in The U.S2. Apparently, the prime minister of Australia said that the country will not accept any refugees who are flagged in the Pacific Islands until the United States of America, takes up at least 1250 of them. The Australian government has a policy that focuses on not allowing people who get to the country by boat as refugees hence, the denial of the refugees to settle in the country2. Australia has an agreement with New Zealand which states that; New Zealand citizens can come to Australia and even live there; this has prompted many people using that channel in order to get to Australia. Hence strict measures on which refugees to be accepted and those that won’t. The question is; should people be allowed to suffer in the Pacific Islands just because they did not use the proper medium of transportation? The country has also refused New Zealand’s offer to take up more refugees since they are not sure how many will the United States of America resettle2.
In conclusion, different countries have different policies when dealing with different aspects. In this case, it is the refugees’ issue which is present and growing in our countries. Therefore the people responsible for making refugees’ policies should analyze and apply moral authority in order to promote less suffering amongst the refugees.
References
1Mica, Rosenberg and Yeganeh, Torbati. 2017. “Trump administration proposes to cut refugee Cap to 45,000.” Reuters, September 27.
2Rod, McGuirk. 2018. “200 refugees rejected by Australia have now settled in U.S.” Washington Post, March 1.