These 360 Photos Show What Life Is Like For Refugees

[Sally]

Thank goodness we are not in the same situation as these people.

These 360 Photos Show What Life Is Like For Refugees
Immersive images show the whole picture.
07/12/2016 10:25 am ET
Modern 2D photography is a great tool to document the struggles around the world, but sometimes it feels like we only see half of the story.

The following images, taken by HuffPost RYOT with a 360-degree camera, allow us to be immersed in the experience of refugees in different countries. From the war-torn streets of Aleppo, Syria, to the mountains of life vests on the shores of the Greek island of Lesbos, these images give us the whole picture and allow us to better tell the stories of those wanting to start new lives.

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These 360 Photos Show What Life Is Like For Refugees

 

[waltky]

How come there's no 'affirmative action' for Christian refugees???

7,551 Syrian Refugees Admitted to U.S. in FY16--Only 35 Christians
August 2, 2016 – The Obama administration admitted 2,340 Syrian refugees into the United States in July, almost as many as the record number of admissions in June (2,406), keeping it on track to reach its goal of 10,000 by the end of September.

Continuing a trend seen throughout the fiscal year, just 15 of the 2,340 resettled in July (0.6 percent) are Christians, while 2,308 (98.6 percent) are Sunni Muslims. According to State Department Refugee Processing Center data, since the beginning of FY 2016 on October 1, a total of 7,551 Syrian refugees have been admitted. Of that number, 7,432 (98.4 percent) are Sunnis and 35 (0.46 percent) are Christians, including six Catholics, two Orthodox and one Greek Orthodox adherent. The remaining 84 Syrian refugees admitted in FY 2016 comprise 50 other Muslims, 20 Shi’a Muslims, 10 Yazidis – like Christians, a minority singled out by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) for persecution – three refugees identified as “other religion,” and one as having “no religion.”

Since the civil war began in 2011 the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has registered 4.82 million Syrians who have fled their homeland. Some 495,000 are accommodated in U.N. refugee camps. Displaced Syrians include those wanting to get away from ISIS and other jihadist groups, those fleeing from atrocities carried out by the Assad regime – dominated by a minority Shi’a sect that has targeted Sunnis in particular – and its Hezbollah, Iranian and Russian allies, and Syrians simply wanting to escape the chaos and deprivation of the conflict. Although Syrians of all ethnic groups and religious denominations have been caught up in the crisis, the number of Christians among refugees admitted into the U.S. is still disproportionately small: Some 10 percent of the Syrian population is Christian, and yet Christians account for less than one percent of refugees admitted to the United States.

On the other hand, Sunnis comprised around 74 percent of the Syrian population when the war began, while the proportion of Sunnis admitted to the U.S. exceeds 97 percent. Of a total of 9,424 Syrian refugees resettled in the U.S. since the conflict broke out, 83 (0.8 percent) are Christians, and 9,151 (97.1 percent) are Sunnis. When the war began – originating in a violent crackdown by the regime on protestors calling for reforms – the Christian population of Syria numbered 1.5-1.7 million. A Chaldean Catholic bishop from Aleppo, Antoine Audo, told an event in Geneva last March that at least one million have fled the country since then. Fearing for their safety, many Christians avoid U.N. refugee camps, sheltering instead in churches, schools or relatives’ homes in surrounding countries. This can mean they are less likely to be considered for refugee status by Western governments, like the U.S. government, which largely rely on the UNHCR for initial applicant referrals.

The UNHCR points out that displaced people can be – and in many cases are – registered with the agency without staying in U.N. refugee camps. The State Department notes that in occasional cases, applicants for refugee status in the U.S. can be referred by a U.S. Embassy or a “specially trained nongovernmental organization,” rather than by the UNHCR. Also, Syrian beneficiaries of approved I-130 immigrant visa petitions (filed by relatives already legally in the U.S.) can bypass the UNHCR and apply directly to the U.S. program, at locations in a number of countries in the Middle East.

7,551 Syrian Refugees Admitted to U.S. in FY16--Only 35 Christians

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Gingrich on Radical Islam: ‘I Am Against Waiting Until We Get Killed’
August 1, 2016 – Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, a Republican, said he is “against waiting until we get killed” to defeat the Islamic State in the wake of the Normandy church priest killing.

“The French government knew that the priest was targeted. The French knew that the two guys who killed him were dangerous, and they did nothing,” Gingrich told CNSNews.com after a speech at the Young America’s Foundation’s National Conservative Student Conference in Washington, D.C. on July 27. “I am against waiting until we get killed before the government decides to protect us,” he said. This attack follows several acts of Islamist terrorism in France, including the Nice attack that left 84 dead and 202 injured after Tunisian-French resident Mohamed Bouhlel drove a 19-ton truck into a Bastille Day celebration early this month.

CNSNews.com asked Gingrich to clarify his comments on Fox News about deporting all Muslims in the United States who support Sharia law. “First of all, I would define political jihad pretty narrowly but pretty real,” the former House Speaker said. “And you think you ought to cut people’s heads and you think you ought to kill people who are, who have left Islam for say Christianity or Judaism or whatever. You think you should kill gays and lesbians, and you think women should be totally subjugated. There’s a set of rules, which in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, are regularly implemented.” “The number of places that people can be killed for being gay is in 10 countries,” said Gingrich. “So there is a belief system you have to be careful about, and you have to say, those folks – it’s a very simple question: Are you willing to subordinate yourself the United States Constitution? Or do you think religious law supersedes the Constitution?” “Because historically, in most of the Middle East, you can’t get to secular law because it’s all religious, and so you can’t assimilate,” he said. “This is a huge problem in Europe. We have several million people who refuse to assimilate. They don’t want to become Western. They don’t want to live in a secular society. They don’t want to live in the rule of law.” “So they cluster in what the French call ‘no go zones,’” said Gingrich. “And we need to understand that that’s a real danger. That’s what I was looking at.”

Earlier this month, Michael Steinbach, executive assistant director for the FBI’s national security branch, said ISIS is the most successful terror group in social media recruitment. Gingrich believes one way to handle this situation is to monitor people who visit these types of websites. “We’re going to have to have some ground rules that say, not so much we put you in jail the first time you look at a website, but if we find that you’re routinely visiting terrorist websites, we should absolutely be monitoring you,” Gingrich said. He added, “If we find that your mosque is actively preaching jihad, we should actively be monitoring you and we should monitor the people who go there.”

Gingrich on Radical Islam: ‘I Am Against Waiting Until We Get Killed’