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Gov. Malloy Calls on Obama to Step Up Syrian Refugee Admissions

The Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan in 2014.
World Bank Photo Collection
/
Creative Commons
The Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan in 2014.

On Wednesday, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy and 26 other Democratic senators sent a letter to President Obama expressing their deep concern about "the slow pace of admissions for Syrian refugees" and encouraged him to step up the process. 

Last September, the President pledged to accept 10,000 refugees by October of this year, but so far only 1,736 refugees have been admitted into the United States. 

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy, speaking earlier this week on the BBC, agreed that the Obama Administration should do more. 

"The government's got to do its job," Malloy told BBC. "The refugee agencies have got to do its job. I will tell you, as a result of what we've done in Connecticut, they have many more volunteers looking to place a refugee family in their community." 

So far, Connecticut has brought in more than 100 Syrian refugees, with another 250 slated to arrive in the coming months. With governors from 30 states refusing to accept refugees, Malloy said Connecticut may have to do more.

"I suspect that we probably have more Syrian refugees than we would have otherwise as a result of some of the positions that these other governors have taken, which basically constitutes discrimination based on religion," Malloy said on the program. 

Earlier this month, Malloy was given the prestigious John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for taking in a Syrian family that was turned away by the state of Indiana.

Copyright 2016 Connecticut Public

Ray Hardman began his broadcasting career at WFSU in Tallahassee Florida where he served at different times as a producer, Operations manager, and Morning Edition host. Ray joined the WNPR staff in 1996, as a reporter and host. He later became the Music Director for WNPR, and in 2002 he went back to his newsy roots as the host of WNPR’s Morning Edition.

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