New York – The United States should base its response to refugees and security threats “on facts, not fear,” Hollywood star and UN special envoy Angelina Jolie wrote Thursday in an opinion piece for the New York Times.
Refugees, rather than being terrorists, “are often the victims of terrorism themselves,” Jolie wrote, responding to US President Donald Trump’s executive order suspending the country’s refugee programme.
“The global refugee crisis and the threat from terrorism make it entirely justifiable that we consider how best to secure our borders,” Jolie wrote.
“But our response must be measured and should be based on facts, not fear,” she said.
Refugees are already subject to “the highest level of screening” for travellers to the US, Jolie wrote – and less than 1 per cent of all refugees in the world get resettled, in the US or any other country.
“Nine out of 10 refugees live in poor and middle-income countries, not in rich Western nations,” Jolie said. “There are 2.8 million Syrian refugees in Turkey alone. Only about 18,000 Syrians have been resettled in America since 2011.”
Jolie has served as special envoy to the UN’s refugee agency since 2012. She said she has “visited countless camps and cities where hundreds of thousands of refugees are barely surviving.”
Those put forward for protection “deserve the safety, shelter and fresh start that countries like ours can offer,” she wrote.
– dpa
