Malaysia. February 11 of this year. It is the kind of report that we see frequently. a monthly update on the progress of one effort to aid refugees. A spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported that. in the month of February. 2.800 people would be resettled from refugee camps in Malaysia. The message of this brief paragraph seemed to be that international cooperation made this small success possible. As we contemplate the immensity and intractability of the refugee problem. it is sometimes good to reflect upon those few individuals we are able to help. As we see the number of refugees in Africa grow from 1 million to 5 million in just the past 5 years. for example. it is good to think that 2.800 people have been able to find permanent homes. and leave the camps of Malaysia. And yet. I looked more closely at the figures reported in this story. and this was the breakdown of acceptance of the refugees. 350 were going to Australia. 450 were divided among Canada. New Zealand. Japan. and the Netherlands. The remainder. 2.000 people. were coming to the United States. This represents. of this small sample. five out of every seven refugees coming to America. This continues the established world practice of sending to the United States more than twice as many refugees as the rest of the world will accept for resettlement. I think that we all agree one of the primary goals of our refugee policy must be to internationalize the effort. There must be international cooperation to prevent displacement of people from their homes. to prevent the creation of refugees. There must be international protection of those fleeing their home countries. There must be international support for those who have become refugees housed in temporary camps. There must be international pressure to achieve repatriation of as many refugees as possible to their home countries. And lastly. when all other steps have failed. and refugees must be resettled in third cointries. there must be a truly shared. international program to accept refugees from their temporary camps. There has been much talk of such a program in the past. and the current program has been portrayed as an international effort. But. sadly. it is not. When the United States resettles two out of three refugees who find permanent new homes. that is an American orozram with minimal Participation from other nations of the world. it is not an international effort. On April 9 and 10. in Geneva. Switzerland. there will be an International Conference on Assistance to Refugees in Africa. It has been convened by the Secretary General of the United Nations. the Organization of African Unity. and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Our Government will send representatives. At this conference. governments will be expected to pledge their support for the 5 million refugees in Africa. I want my Government to be generous at Geneva. I want our pledge to be outstanding among those of all nations. We are a generous country. But I do not want the Government of the United States to carry fivesevenths of the worlds burden of caring for the refugees of Africa. I do not want the nations of the world to assume that the United States will accept the great majority of refugees for resettlement if they will but take a few. What I do want is for the administration to develop a plan for increasingincreasing dramaticallythe participation of other countries in the resettlement effort. I want this plan to be promoted by our Government before the conference. and insisted upon by our Government at the conference. If other nations believe that we shall continue to carry the great portion of the burden. they will continue to let us do so. It is only by our insisting that they accept their fair shares of refugees for resettlement that they will do so. I am glad for the 2.800 refugees from Malaysia who found new homes this month. But I believe that the proportion of those refugees who came to America. fivesevenths. cannot long continue to be Americas share of the refugee resettlement effort. I ask unanimous consent that the attached news article be printed in the RECORD.
Keywords matched
Refugees refugee refugees