Love and loathing greet pope's appeal for parishes to host refugees

 At a recent meeting of Catholic parishioners in the small town of Castelgomberto in northern Italy, a man got up and shouted "My grandfather built that place for priests, not for Muslims".

"It was a pretty stormy meeting," said Father Lucio Mozzo, pastor to six parishes in the area, who was trying to convince residents to allow a family of refugees to move into a disused vicarage in a nearby valley.

In an unprecedented gesture last Sunday, Pope Francis appealed to every Catholic parish, religious community and sanctuary in Europe to take in a family of refugees, saying he would set the example by hosting two families in parishes inside the Vatican..

The Roman Catholic Church's capacity to help refugees in parishes from Sicily to Sweden is huge, but the success of the appeal will depend on how many parishes take action.

There are about 120,000 parishes in Europe, with the largest number - about 27,000 - in Italy. France and Spain have about 20,000 each. Iceland has among the fewest, with six.

The response has so far been mixed.

Official statements from bishops conferences have oozed with optimism. Grass-roots groups have preached a let's-roll-up-the-sleeves attitude, with a number of initiatives already taking shape.

But confrontations in Castelgomberto and elsewhere in Europe have illustrated the difficulties priests may face at the local level as suspicion and xenophobia have reared their heads.

"I think fear is prevailing. It is fomented by what people hear about crime, and they ask questions like 'how do we manage these people? What will they do? How long will they stay?'" Mozzo said in a telephone interview.

Mozzo was not the only Catholic priest who found resistance.

When Catholic monks in the village of Ladce in Western Slovakia proposed housing 30 families of Christian Syrian refugees in an empty monastery building last month, local opposition forced them to retract the offer.

Residents in the predominantly Catholic town of about 2,600 people signed a petition complaining that the building was too close to a school and a kindergarten. Slovak media quoted one resident as saying that "Syrian Christians are not like Slovak Christians".

TEST OF CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM RELATIONS

U.S. to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees: White House

President Barack Obama has directed his administration to prepare to take in at least 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year, the White House said on Thursday.

It is the first specific commitment the United States has made toward increasing its acceptance of refugees from the war-torn country.

Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, the United States has taken in 1,500 refugees, with 300 more expected to be cleared by October.

But refugee advocates and some members of Congress say taking in an additional 10,000 refugees does not go far enough toward addressing the humanitarian crisis triggered by the war, which has prompted a massive refugee influx into Europe.

In a letter distributed to House Democrats and seen by Reuters, Democratic Representative David Cicilline asked Obama to accommodate 65,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2016. Religious groups have called for the United States to accept 100,000 Syrian refugees.

European countries have taken in waves of migrants fleeing violence. Germany allowed 20,000 in over the weekend and is preparing for 800,000 this year.

Melanie Nezer, vice president of HIAS, a global refugee advocacy group, said allowing 10,000 more refugees from Syria is not an adequate response to the crisis at hand.

"This is totally within the realm of what the current system on autopilot could do. This is not time for autopilot. This is time to really ramp things up," said Nezer.

The United States is conducting air strikes in Syria as part of its effort to fight against Islamic State. The United States currently admits annually a total of 70,000 refugees from around the world, and is due to increase that total by 5,000 for the fiscal year starting in October.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest would not say whether the 10,000 Syrians would be a part of or in addition to that total.

Earnest said national security was a top concern for admitting Syrians, a country rife with anti-American militants, noting that intensive security screening for refugees could take up to 18 months.

"I do feel confident in telling you that the president will not sign off on a process that cuts corners when it comes to the basic safety and security of the American people and the U.S. homeland," Earnest told reporters.

The additional background checks and processing will require a "significant financial commitment" from Congress, Earnest said.

Congress cannot block the administration from setting limits on the number of refugees it admits from each region. But it can block funding needed for staffing agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services that handle the screening and resettlement procedures.

House Appropriations Committee aides said they had yet to receive a request for more money to accommodate an increase in Syrian refugees and declined to comment on the likelihood of approving such an increase unless it is formally submitted.

Senior Republican Senators Bob Corker and Lindsey Graham have said they are open to the idea of allowing more refugees, as long as they are subjected to security screenings.

Australia To Take 12,000 Refugees

Australia will accept 12,000 refugees from Syria on top of its current humanitarian intake quota, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Wednesday, bowing to pressure from an angry opposition, and extend air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq into Syria.

Abbott had said on Sunday that Australia would allocate more spaces in its 13,750 annual quota to those fleeing violence in Syria, without boosting overall arrivals.

The one-off move to offer refuge to those fleeing the four-year-old civil war in Syria would prioritize members of persecuted minorities, Abbott said.

"Australia remains committed to the international effort to counter Daesh, which threatens stability in Iraq and the Middle East and the security of Australians at home and in our region," he told reporters in Canberra, using an Arabic name for Islamic State.

At least 850,000 people are expected to cross the Mediterranean seeking refuge in Europe this year and next, the United Nations said on Tuesday, giving estimates that already look conservative. The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR called for more cohesive asylum policies to deal with the growing numbers.

The Royal Australian Air Force is already taking part in the U.S.-led coalition campaign against Islamic State targets in Iraq, but its aerial role in Syria has so far been limited to refueling and intelligence gathering.

The decision to expand air strikes was in response to a formal request from Washington, Abbott said.

"This is not an attempt to build a liberal pluralist market democracy overnight in the Middle East. That's been tried and it didn't magnificently succeed," Abbott said.

"Surely all human beings are entitled to a government which doesn't commit genocide against them."

Australia also committed to directly pay for the support of 240,000 displaced people in countries neighboring Syria and Iraq, Abbott said, at a cost of A$44 million ($31.03 million).

Refugee advocates praised the decision to allow in the displaced Syrians.

"(It) is an important first step and shows to the world that Australia is willing to support those who are in great need," the Refugee Council of Australia said in a statement.

At the same time, the move to wade deeper into the conflict in Syria drew harsh rebukes from Abbott's political opponents.

"At a time when our community is desperate to show compassion to people fleeing war in Syria, Tony Abbott is dropping bombs," opposition Greens Party leader Richard Di Natale told reporters.

Britain Will Be Forced To Take 'Fair Share' Of Refugees, Swedish Minister Warns

Britain will eventually be forced by the European Union to take its fair share of migrants, Sweden’s immigration minister has warned.

Refugees coming to Europe will at some point have to be divided amongst all EU member states - including the UK - according to population, GDP and unemployment level, as proposed by the European Commission in May, Morgan Johansson, the justice and migration minister told the Telegraph.

"Every country that is a part of the EU should do their share, and that goes for everyone,” he said. "Sooner or later there will be a mechanism that makes it compulsory for all countries to do their share, because that’s the way Europe works."

Sweden takes in more refugees per head that any other EU country, with over 8,400 applicants per million people in 2014, compared to less than 500 applicants per million to the UK.

Mr Johansson was critical of Britain’s insistence in May that it would exercise its opt-out from EU justice and home affairs legislation to avoid participating in a binding, compulsory system.

“When the UK is not doing their share, that creates bigger problems for the rest of us,” he said.

"I can compare it to the Irish approach. They also have the possibility to opt out if they want to, but at the meeting we had this summer, they said, ‘we don’t have to do this, but we are ready nevertheless to take this responsibility’. They did that in order to make it easier for the rest of us."

Just days after Chancellor George Osborne travelled to Stockholm to win over Sweden’s support for the UK’s programme of EU reform, Mr Johansson warned that Sweden was unlikely to back proposals for a four-year ban on EU migrants claiming in-work benefits, a key UK demand.

"If it would mean problems for Swedish people going to the UK to work, then of course it would be a problem for us,” he said. “If they were to change that, we would really have to raise that issue with our British colleagues."

Mr Johansson also criticised Mr Cameron for describing immigrants as “a swarm” in June.

"You must ask David Cameron why he uses rhetoric like that," Mr Johansson said. “I think you should have a constructive approach when you are dealing with matters concerning life and death."

He said that at a time of the highest refugee numbers since the Second World War, it was the responsibility of political leaders to convince voters that immigration was necessary despite the short-term costs, “both for humanitarian causes, but also because our country will benefit from it in the long run”.

“That calls for political leadership instead of running away because they are being faced by some extreme Right-wing rhetoric,” he said.

While he admitted that the refugee situation for Sweden and the rest of Europe was “not sustainable”, Mr Johansson stopped short of describing it as a “crisis”.

“You can’t talk about a crisis as far as Sweden is concerned. Sweden can cope with the number that we are receiving,” he said.

“We should remember that immigration is not just about the downsides, it has upsides also. Europe is an ageing continent. More people are growing older and older and that means that in the long run we need people.”

Source: Telegraph

Critics Push U.S. To Help Europe By Taking More Refugees

The United States came under more pressure on Sunday to help Europe find sanctuary for a flood of immigrants displaced by war and chaos, but Washington showed no signs of planning a dramatic increase in its intake of refugees.

David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee and a former British foreign secretary, called on the United States to bring out "the kind of leadership America has shown on these kind of issues" in the past.

"The United States has always been a leader in refugee resettlement but 1,500 people over four years is such a miniscule contribution to tackling the human side of this problem," Miliband said on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

State Department spokesman John Kirby, in an interview with Reuters late on Saturday, offered no indication the United States would be greatly boosting the number of immigrants it would allow into the country. He cited the $4 billion U.S. contribution to refugee relief and reconfirmed the Obama administration's position about security concerns.

"There is a significant vetting process here for folks from Syria that we have to follow," he said, adding that the Obama administration had been in contact with European allies and was exploring options.

U.S. authorities want to prevent militants from Islamic State or al Qaeda from slipping into the country as refugees.

But there are risks to sticking to current policy and not playing a more active role in helping Europe. Another U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that, given the graphic images of the refugees' plight, Washington may face an international image problem for admitting only a small number compared with European countries.

Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees, said the United States had not put a quota on the number of refugees it would accept. She said the UNHCR had submitted almost 16,300 refugees for resettlement in the United States and would continue submitting cases for consideration.

'FUNDAMENTALLY FALLS ON EUROPE'

Europe has been operating without a consensus on what do with the flood of refugees.

Austria and Germany, which expects to receive 800,000 refugees and migrants this year, have opened their borders in recent days to thousands of mostly Syrian refugees who had been stranded in Hungary. Pope Francis on Sunday called on every Catholic parish and religious community in Europe to take in at least one refugee family.

    Since the Syrian conflict began in early 2011, the United States has taken in 1,500 refugees from there, the vast majority this year. Kirby said as many as 1,500 more refugees could be admitted by the end of 2015 and maybe more next year.

A new Facebook group, Open Homes, Open Hearts US, was circulating an online petition urging Obama administration officials to "greatly increase the number of Syrian refugees who are resettled in our country and let them know you would be willing to welcome an individual or a family into your home." The group's page had almost 4,800 likes as of Sunday night.

Immigration has become a major issue in the campaign leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Billionaire businessman Donald Trump has risen to the top of the Republican field with a hardline stance calling for deportation of undocumented migrants and a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, but said last week he would consider allowing Syrians into the United States.

Another Republican presidential candidate, John Kasich, also appearing on ABC's "This Week," said he favored a somewhat enhanced U.S. role with the refugees but that the situation was not primarily a Washington problem.

"I think we do have a responsibility in terms of taking some more folks in, making sure they assimilate," he said. "This is fundamentally an issue Europe has to come to grips with. We can provide some humanitarian aid to them."

Writing in the New York Times, Michael Ignatieff, a former leader of Canada's Liberal Party and now a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, said the United States, Canada and Middle East nations were wrong to consider the crisis as Europe's problem.

The United States and its allies have a responsibility to the Syrian refugees - estimated at 4 million since civil war began in their homeland - since they are arming Syrian rebels and fighting Islamic State in the country, he said.

"Blaming the Europeans is an alibi and the rest of our excuses - like the refugees don’t have the right papers - are sickening," Ignatieff wrote.

He called on the United States and Canada to take in a minimum of 25,000 Syrians and said pressure on those governments may intensify after publication in the past week of dramatic photographs of the refugees' plight.