--- title: David Miliband: Don't Conflate Terrorists With Refugees description: Refugees are an American success story—now is not the time to abandon them canonical: https://time.com/4117277/paris-attacks-david-miliband/ author: David Miliband article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-17T23:46:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:49:28.141Z article:section: Ideas og:title: David Miliband: Don't Conflate Terrorists With Refugees og:description: Refugees are an American success story—now is not the time to abandon them og:url: https://time.com/4117277/paris-attacks-david-miliband/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4dd4b43388da1a41/698871975f570fdd01b1e640/refugees-migrants.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: MACEDONIA-EUROPE-MIGRANTS og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: David Miliband: Don't Conflate Terrorists With Refugees twitter:description: Refugees are an American success story—now is not the time to abandon them twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4dd4b43388da1a41/698871975f570fdd01b1e640/refugees-migrants.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # David Miliband: Don't Conflate Terrorists With Refugees > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Politicians React to U.S. Policy on Syrian Refugees [Watch (HLS stream): Politicians React to U.S. Policy on Syrian Refugees](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xRGMbKjA.m3u8) (1:57)  _Published 2015-11-17_ by [David Miliband](https://time.com/author/david-miliband/) ## David Miliband Nov 17, 2015 11:46 PM UTC  Migrants and refugees enter a registration camp after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border near Gevgelija, Macedonia on Nov. 17, 2015. Migrants and refugees enter a registration camp after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border near Gevgelija, Macedonia on Nov. 17, 2015. Dimitar Dilkoff—Getty Images by [David Miliband](https://time.com/author/david-miliband/) ## David Miliband Nov 17, 2015 11:46 PM UTC Friday’s horrific terrorist assault on Paris—a day after an equally depraved double suicide attack in Beirut—has shaken Europe. It comes as the continent struggles to cope with an unprecedented influx of refugees fleeing similar violence across the Middle East, Africa and beyond. That common suffering makes it all the more important not to fall into the trap of conflating terrorists with refugees. Worse still, it is dangerous. It risks further distracting the E.U. and the rest of the international community from mounting an effective response to the biggest displacement crisis since World War II, with potentially serious consequences for the world’s refugees and global stability. This is no time to throw away the benefits of U.S. leadership that have helped rebuild lives for millions of people. Refugees are an American success story. Now is not the time to abandon them. The number of people displaced by conflict and persecution inside and outside their home countries today stands at [almost 60 million](http://www.unhcr.org/558193896.html), the highest level ever recorded by the U.N. Refugee Agency. The war in Syria, which has left 11 million homeless, and where [in October alone](https://docs.unocha.org/sites/dms/Documents/16Nov2015%20USG%20OBrien%5FStatement%20to%20SecCo%20on%20Syria%20as%20delivered.pdf) hundreds of civilians were killed and injured by barrel bombing and shelling, bears much responsibility for this grim spike. The lack of international resolve to end this conflict, as well as other wars, saw an average of one person uprooted by violence around the world every two seconds of every day of 2014\. The odds are that each of these will spend the next [20 years in exile](http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/files/publications/policy-briefing-series/pb-unlocking-protracted-displacement-2011.pdf). The diplomatic response to this paradigm shift—to the proliferation and increasing duration of intrastate conflicts and displacement—has been inadequate. So has international support for the countries that host the majority of the world’s [20 million refugees](http://www.unhcr.org/55842cb46.html). Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq are currently providing refuge to nearly [4.3 million Syrians](http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/regional.php), at a cost of tens of billions of dollars. Yet the U.N.’s 2015 appeal for Syrian refugees and their hosts is just [50% funded](https://fts.unocha.org/pageloader.aspx?page=emerg-emergencyDetails&appealID=1090), six weeks from the year’s end. Offers by the [U.S.](http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/david-miliband-syrian-refugees-not-threat-article-1.2434327), most of the E.U. (with Germany an honorable exception) and others to resettle the most vulnerable refugees outside the region have been very limited. It is this sense of abandonment that is forcing those in war-ridden states and those who have already fled to make for Europe. [More than half](http://data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/regional.php) of those risking the Mediterranean and Aegean crossings are Syrian. E.U. laws and visa restrictions mean that the only way refugees can exercise their international legal right to protection from persecution within the bloc’s borders is by boat, forcing them into the arms of smugglers. The result—exacerbated by meagre EU support for Greece—is chaos. It means that conditions for the [4,000 people](http://www.unhcr.org/55fbefcf6.html) landing on the island of Lesbos every day are dire. It means that the Greek authorities cannot adequately receive, register and assist these arrivals properly. And it means that establishing a well-managed and orderly screening process for refugees arriving in Europe—for which my organization, the [International Rescue Committee](http://www.rescue.org/), has been calling since the onset of this crisis—is needlessly difficult. The U.S. is in a very different situation. By virtue of geography, refugee flows are much smaller. It is harder to get to the U.S. as a refugee than through any other route. There are extensive security checks in place, involving many agencies of U.S. government. And refugee resettlement is a U.S. success story—from Albert Einstein to Madeleine Albright to Sergey Brin, refugees have become great contributors to this country. Refugee resettlement can heal some of the worst wounds of the crisis. But there also needs to be a step change in the global response to—to begin with—the Syria crisis, of the scale that pulled Europe out of devastation following World War II and set it on the path to peace and prosperity: an internationally coordinated, multi-country economic plan that brings governments, the private sector, development donors and international financial institutions together to support Syria’s struggling neighbors in hosting the millions of refugees currently within their borders. A massive scale-up of resettlement programs to allow the most vulnerable to reach safety outside the region, including in the E.U. and the U.S., and the establishment and expansion of safe and legal routes into the E.U. for those seeking asylum, are key counterparts to such a scheme. Significant as it sounds, this would constitute but the beginning of an effective response to this crisis. The world has entered a new era of displacement. To cope, it needs to enter a new era of diplomacy. Syria, where chaos and insecurity have allowed groups like ISIS to [flourish](http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/29/opinions/miliband-isis-advances/)—and, [it appears](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34830233), to plot last week’s dreadful attacks in France—is the place to start. After years of political inertia, talks in Vienna last weekend yielded an [international](http://www.un.org/sg/offthecuff/index.asp?nid=4259) call for a ceasefire, negotiations, a new constitution, and free and fair elections in the country by May 2017\. What a tribute it would be, to the victims of violence and terror in Paris, Beirut and beyond, if that plan were to be put into action. _David Miliband is the president & CEO of the International Rescue Committee._ ## Transcript When I hear political leaders [ BLANK_AUDIO ] suggesting that there would be a religious test [ BLANK_AUDIO ], for which [ BLANK_AUDIO ] a person who's fleeing from a war torn country is admitted. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] When some of those folks themselves come from families who benefited from protection when they were fleeing political persecution, that's shameful. That's not American. And when hundreds of thousands of people have lost everything, have nothing left but the shirts on their backs, we will not turn our backs on the refugees from Syria and Afghanistan. [ APPLAUSE ] Refugees are pouring into our great country from Syria. We don't even know who they are. They could be ISIS. They could be anybody. What's our President doing? Is he insane? We can't act as though we're shutting the doors to people in need without undermining who we are as Americans and the values we have stood for. [ APPLAUSE ] Our nation has always been welcoming. But, we cannot let terrorists take advantage of our compassion. This is a moment where it's better to be safe, than to be sorry. We need to hear from the White House and Homeland Security on exactly what these background checks are. What they, how they communicate to us in the States where these people are settling, so we can keep track of exactly what's occurring within our states. I believe the United States and the world needs to go on offense and stop the reason people have to leave Syria. The good people are leaving because they're being raped and murdered, and some terrorists are trying to get in their ranks. My heart says that we should let them in. 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