Speech #1140059165

Many Christians who want to flee persecution face the difficult decision of where to turn and where will they be safe. A decision of how to flee and what mode of transportation to take can be critical to Christian families. It was reported this past April that 12 Christian migrants trying to get to Europe by boat were simply thrown overboard by fellow Muslim migrants and drowned. Most are afraid to go to the U.N. refugee camps and fear the actions taken by some of their more radicalized Muslim neighbors within the camps. There are very few Christians in these camps and other nonMuslims because they fear for their own personal safety. Unfortunately for these persecuted religious minorities. the only persons able to qualify easily for U.N. refugee resettlement are those people who are in these U.N. refugee camps. There in the camp they can be designated as priority 1 eligible by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. and then they qualify for resettlement. This is critical to know because the U.N. refugee camps are the only source from which the U.S. will accept U.N. refugees under this resettlement act. Since very few Christians feel safe in these camps. it is apparent that this is the reason that less than 4 percent of the U.N. resettled refugees are Christians. Former Archbishop George Carey of Canterbury said it best when he stated that this inadvertently discriminates against the very Christian communities most victimized by the inhuman butchers of the socalled Islamic State. It is a sad reality for Christians in this part of the world right now. They are so desperate to leave that they have said that they will go almost anywhere except the U.N. camps to try to rebuild their lives. There is another method. however. other than the resettlement act by which it is possible to admit Christians and other groups into the U.S. as refugees. The U.S. State Department has the authority to designate certain groups like Christians as priority 2 refugees. which would enable them to enter the United States without having to be living in a U.N. refugee camp. The U.S. State Department needs to act on this immediately.