Mr. President. today I am reintroducing the Refugee Protection Act. along with Senators Franken. Durbig and Hirono. The world is confronting the worst refugee crisis since World War II. There are more than 65 million people who have been forcibly displaced around the globe. In the face of such staggering human suffering. we must not lower our torchwe must raise it higher. The Refugee Protection Act of 2016 takes important steps to bolster and update our laws to address the urgency of todays crisis. Now. more than ever. we must reaffirm our role as a humanitarian leader and renew our commitment to those fleeing persecution across the world. The ongoing conflict in Syria makes clear the enormity of the humanitarian crisis we face. The terror inflicted by Bashar AlAssads regime and ISIS. which now subjects vast swaths of the region to its barbaric rule. has forced more than half of Syrias 23 million people from their homes and claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians Currently. there are more than 4.8 million registered Syrian refugees. the overwhelming majority of whom are women and children. The United States must assert its leadership in efforts to resettle the innocent victims of this catastrophe. That is precisely the call so many of us respondedjiipj:st a year ago when the world came together stunned and heartbroken over the image of a 3yearold Syrian childs lifeless body washed up on a Turkish beach.
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