Political Quotes

“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.…”