I acknowledge that good, well-meaning people who genuinely care about Syrian refugees can have perfectly valid concerns about the security risk of bringing in tens of thousands of people from a war zone. It is as large an undertaking as it sounds.
So, I did some research and here are some facts:
1. Refugees coming to Canada will undergo three separate screening processes.
First, they are selected from those screened by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. The UNHCR uses sophisticated anti-fraud tools like biometrics.
Second, they are interviewed before coming to Canada.
Third, once in Canada, they are screened by Canada's security services.
Thanks to these precautions, security experts say the chances of an ISIS terrorist getting through are infinitesimal.
2. Canada is prioritizing families (particularly female-headed households), unaccompanied minors and the sick, not single individuals.
These groups were selected because they pose the least risk of radicalization.
3. Not accepting refugees is an even greater threat to national security.
According to leading experts in national security, terrorism, radicalization and intelligence like Munk School of Public Affairs Prof. Wesley Wark and Georgetown University Prof. Anne Speckhard, filthy and unsafe refugee camps are hotbeds for extremism.
Perhaps not surprisingly, terrorists find it remarkably easy to recruit fighters in squalid and hopeless camps teeming with desperate and disenfranchised people.
According to Prof. Speckhard: “Experience from many conflict zones teaches us that the longer these refugees are left to languish in despair in camps the more prone they become to radicalization.”
4. Accepting refugees strikes a blow at ISIS.
ISIS relies on extortion and the taxes they collect from the vast swaths of territory they control. “They want to stop the refugee process because one of their main sources of income in the ISIS-controlled territory is taxation of the people there, extortion of the people there," according to University of Ottawa law professor Errol Mendes.
If, in light of these new facts, you still want to talk about security as a reason for keeping Syrian refugees out, you need to acknowledge that you're not afraid of terrorists, you're afraid of brown people.
No comments:
Post a Comment