Senate Resolution 503--Recognizing June As ``World Refugee Day''
Floor Speech
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Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, today I submit a resolution to mark World Refugee Day, June 20, and to address the unprecedented humanitarian crisis of millions of men, women, and children who are forced to flee from their homes due to conflict, violence, persecution, or human rights violations.
According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR, the numbers of refugees and internally displaced people in 2015 uprooted from their home outstripped even the catastrophic levels of displacement following World War II. By the end of last year, 65.3 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide. Fifty percent of the displaced are children. These individuals and families have been uprooted by violence and persecution in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Burundi, South Sudan, Ukraine, and Afghanistan. These brutal conflicts churning through entire regions are shattering nations, and scattering an unprecedented number of people. Yet, we cannot allow these suffering people to become an abstraction or mere grim statistics. We cannot allow the wearying repetition of the horrors to numb our ability to think of each individual and each family as people just like ourselves, struggling to cope with unbearable circumstances.
Closer to home, rising numbers of people fleeing gang and other violence in Central America have contributed wider displacement across the wider region. Nearly 110,000 refugees and asylum seekers have come from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to Mexico and the United States, representing a more than five-fold increase over three years.
The relentless, horrifying violence of the Syrian conflict is perhaps the most shocking. By the end of 2015, there were close to 5 million Syrian refugees worldwide, an increase of 1 million men, women, and children within one year. After 5 years of war, the situation is increasingly desperate for both the refugees and host countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq. It is hard to comprehend the demographic, economic, and social impact of millions of refugees on these host countries. The number of refugees in Lebanon, for instance, would be equivalent to 88 million new refugees arriving in the United States.
The futures of millions of Syrian children are being stolen because they have no access to education. In the tiny country of Lebanon alone, there are over 300,000 Syrian refugee children who have no access to school. Over 2 million Syrian women are in the neighboring countries trying to survive. Dangerous coping mechanisms are on the rise. More and more families are forced to send their children to work or marry off their young daughters.
While contributing generously to humanitarian funding, the United States has only accepted about 2,850 Syrian refugees to date. Because Syrians are finding it increasingly difficult to find safety, they are being forced to move further afield. Hundreds of thousands of people, most from Syria, have crossed the Mediterranean in boats in search of protection in Europe. Since January 2015, almost 5,000 mothers, fathers, and children lost their lives in their desperate bid to escape violence.
We know that the Syrian humanitarian disaster, which has destabilized an entire region, is not the accidental byproduct of conflict. It is, rather, one result of the strategy pursued by the Assad regime. The UN's Commission of Inquiry on Syria has documented that the Assad regime intentionally engages in the indiscriminate bombardments of homes, hospitals, schools, and water and electrical facilities to terrorize the civilian population. The terrorist groups Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant, ISIL, and Al-Nusra have also deliberately shelled areas with high concentrations of civilians.
There is also a grave and escalating humanitarian crisis in Yemen. That country was particularly vulnerable even before the current conflict, and now civilians throughout the country are facing alarming levels of suffering and violence. By the end of 2015, almost 200,000 people had fled to other countries, and about 2.5 million people were forced from their homes and live in empty schools, and other public buildings, or along highways.
We are also witnessing violent conflict that has pushed millions of people out of regions in Sub-Saharan Africa. The outbreak of violence in Burundi forced over 200,000 people to flee their country last year. In Libya, smuggling and trafficking networks thrive as the country has become a major transit route for sub-Saharan Africans seeking safety and security in Europe. Most of these refugees are fleeing Boko Haram in Nigeria, and decades of armed conflict and al-Shabaab in Somalia and Eritrea, where the government carries out extrajudicial killings, torture, and other serious human rights violations. In the Lake Chad Basin region, more than 2.4 million people--1.5 million of them children--have fled their homes due to violence and attacks by the terrorist group Boko Haram. The conflict has forced more than 200,000 Nigerians to flee to Cameroon, Chad, and Niger following attacks on their villages. While violence persists in Somalia, I am deeply concerned about the recent announcement by the government of Kenya that it would seek to close Dadaab, the largest refugee camp in the world and home to almost 400,000 Somali refugees. Shutting down the camp will mean increased protection risks for the thousands of refugees, the majority of who are women, children and unaccompanied minors. Moreover, Somalia is faced with a severe drought and other security risks which will increase the vulnerability of its displaced people.
The international community must get serious about protecting the most vulnerable refugees--women and children. Women are facing ferocious threats in conflicts across the globe where rape and sexual assault are being used as weapons of war, and as vulnerable refugees they continue to be targets of gender-based violence. Children now make up one-half of all refugees worldwide. We must do more to protect them from sexual exploitation and abuse, from recruitment as child soldiers, and from being forced into early marriage. Organizations such as the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, Mercy Corps, Catholic Relief Services, and others know how to provide targeted support and protection to women and children refugees. But we in the international community must fund them adequately to help them do the job. The United States has lead in terms of humanitarian assistance, but we must encourage other nations to do more.
Against this tragic backdrop, we have all listened recently to divisive political rhetoric and hate speech on refugee and migration issues which is feeding rising levels of xenophobia. Instead of burden- sharing, we see borders closing; instead of political will, there is political paralysis. Humanitarian organizations and their field staff, overstretched and exhausted, are left to deal with consequences while, at the same time, they are trying to save lives on shrinking budgets. As the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has noted, ``Yet, there is cause for hope. In contrast to the toxic narrative repeatedly played out in the media we have often witnessed an outpouring of generosity; by host communities, by individuals, and by families opening their homes. These ordinary people see refugees not as beggars, competitors for jobs, or terrorists--but as people like you or me whose lives have been disrupted by war.''
In closing, we must recognize that as these conflicts proliferate, no corner of the world will be left unaffected. Today, on World Refugee Day, we recognize that every person fleeing his or her home deserves compassion and help; displaced people should be able to live their lives in safety and dignity. We must recommit ourselves to work smarter and harder to assist the world's most vulnerable people. Next year, on this day, I want to stand before the Senate to speak of the progress we have made and the lives we have saved by our collective efforts.
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