Stuck Between Iraq and a Hard Place

Yes, it's tongue-in-cheek but I don't mean to be funny. The recent 500+ death toll of a Syrian refugee boat has got me thinking about this issue (again).

For those of you who aren't aware of the Refugee Crisis (and, really, at this point you would have to be living under a rock to not know), many of the refugees have been fleeing from war-torn Syria to the EU. This has added a slew of pressure on European countries and their policies about sheltering the refugees and some have been responding better than others (hats off to you, Germany).

However, in the process of leaving their country, many of the refugees' journeys have ended in capsized boats, high death tolls, and horrified countries. On April 20, 2015, a boat carrying these refugees sank in the Mediterranean off the Libyan coast where 900+ deaths contributed to the over 1,500 deaths in similar accidents from the year before. Eerily, on the same day a year later (April 20, 2016) and in roughly the same location, a sunken boat is said to have caused nearly 500 deaths.

Fixing this is a consequential situation based on world events. For instance, if Trump is elected we may have a larger issue given his anti-immigrant platform. Am I allowed to say these things? Why not. I'm an American and I thank my lucky (50) stars for that every day. But this post isn't meant to fall into the black hole that is the 2016 Presidential Election. It's meant to begin an understanding about what this crisis is and how we can fix it starting in small ways.

Germany's policies are admirable, but we need more. We need it on a bigger scale. And, no, I don't know the solution to these problems, but I do know that help can begin at the micro level (supporting policy, voting for effective leaders, donating funds/time, etc.) and create waves of bigger change.

#Iraq #Syria #refugee #currentnews