Obama Admin. Pledges Another $24M to Help Refugees in Europe

Brittany M. Hughes | December 4, 2015
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The State Department announced Friday that the United States will contribute another $24 million taxpayer dollars in humanitarian assistance for the mass of “refugees and migrants” currently flooding into European nations.

Via a State Department press release:

The United States today announced a contribution of nearly $24 million in new humanitarian assistance from the United States to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that will help the UN organization to assist refugees and migrants throughout Europe who now face the onset of winter, especially those in Greece, the Balkans, and other parts of Europe. UNHCR’s critical assistance includes providing food, water, and temporary shelter, as well as establishing areas to screen and process arriving refugees and migrants who may need assistance or legal protection.

We encourage other governments to contribute to UNHCR’s recent appeals to assist these vulnerable people.

Even as the U.S. debt ticks steadily toward $19 trillion, this contribution is only the latest in a long line of U.S. funding to help manage the flood of refugees fleeing violence in Syria and the Middle East. While President Obama appeals to American values and compassion to help deal with the refugee crisis, the cost of assisting the mass Syrian migration might wind up up reaching deep into American taxpayer’s pockets.



As of September, the Washington Post reported U.S. contributions to the crisis in Europe since 2011 had totaled $4.5 billion, including a $419 million pledge the Obama administration made at the time of the article.

Additionally, one recent Heritage Foundation study, cited by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), found that resettling the 10,000 Syrian refugees Obama has vowed to allow into the United States would cost taxpayers about $6.5 billion.

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