According to the UN, 50% of Syrians are either internally displaced, have become refugees or have been killed. From the Guardian:
"More than 4 million refugees have fled Syria since the war there began in 2011.According to the UN’s refugee agency, almost 1.8 million have gone to Turkey, more than 600,000 to Jordan and 1 million to Lebanon – a country whose population is just 4 million.. . .Angela Merkel said Germany expected to take at least 800,000 asylum seekers this year. The figure is likely to go up, and could hit 1 million, Berlin says. In 2014 the European nation that accepted the largest number of refugees in proportion to its population was Sweden. Hungary, Malta, Switzerland and 13 other countries accepted more asylum applications than the UK, according to Eurostat. Between June 2014 and June 2015, the UK took 166 Syrian refugees. "
Questions for the discussion:
This mirrors the impact of the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan on its population between 1979 and 1989 in terms of numbers - what are the similarities and differences? What are the connections to uprisings in the Arab world?
Among others, a recent New York Times article by Micheal Ignatieff criticized the U.S. for not taking in more refugees. Is that fair? What are the security risks for accepting refugees, and global implications?
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