Page 9 - ATD21NOV2015

WORLD NEWS 9
Saturday 21 November 2015

Obama to visit Asia refugee center amid raging debate in U.S.

JOSH LEDERMAN insist Obama’s refugee ding efforts to reform the Obama’s administration The refugee debate has
Associated Press program be halted or, at visa waiver process, but has played a central role played out this week as
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia a minimum, that entry re- those proposals seemed in Myanmar’s emergence Obama traveled to Turkey,
(AP) — President Barack quirements be tightened. highly unlikely to satisfy crit- from brutal military rule, the Philippines and Malay-
Obama is planning to visit Obama has refused to en- ics who want the refugee a transformation Obama sia, but it will confront him
a refugee center in Malay- tertain either idea. program halted. Obama considers a key foreign directly when he returns
sia, casting a spotlight on The president has insisted wants to take in roughly policy success. Yet the to Washington early Mon-
the plight of those fleeing he’ll veto a bill in Congress 10,000 Syrians in the next continued persecution of day. One of his first orders
violence and persecution raising the bar for entry for year. Rohingya remains a stain of business will be a meet-
from Myanmar to Syria.
Obama’s tour of the Dig- U.S. President Barack Obama smiles as he takes questions from the floor at the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI)
nity for Children Founda-
tion on Saturday comes town hall meeting at Taylor’s University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Friday, Nov. 20, 2015. Associated Press
amid a raging debate
back home over Obama’s Syrian refugees. The mea- Many of the refugees living on the country’s record, ing with French President
plan to allow thousands of sure passed the House by in Malaysia are Rohingya, and even opposition lead- Francois Hollande, who is
Syrian refugees to resettle an overwhelming, veto- a Muslim ethnic group. er Aung San Suu Kyi, an vowing war against the Is-
in the U.S. The foundation proof margin that included Tens of thousands of Ro- Obama ally whose party lamic Stage group as na-
provides schooling and as- scores of Democrats. hingya have fled Myanmar triumphed in recent elec- tions across Europe clamp
sistance to refugees who Obama sought to change to escape persecution by tions, has been sharply crit- down on border controls
have fled to Kuala Lumpur, the subject Friday by throw- the country’s Buddhist ma- icized for looking the other out of fear that terrorists
and Obama’s aides said ing his support behind bud- jority. way. could strike again.q
he intended his visit to il-
lustrate how an escalating
global refugee crisis only
increases prospects for
violence that could reach
America’s shores.
“We can’t say to other
countries, ‘You need to
take in refugees, you need
to take your fair share, but
we’re going to slam the
door,’” said Obama’s dep-
uty national security advis-
er, Ben Rhodes, predicting
other nations would follow
suit. “Suddenly you have
masses of displaced peo-
ples who are essentially in
limbo. That clearly is a rec-
ipe for greater instability.”
Pervasive concerns that
Islamic extremists could
slip into the United States
and commit attacks like
those in Paris have led
many U.S. lawmakers to