‘Shocking Behavior’: Only 1.5 Percent of Syrian Christians Accepted into Western Nations

‘Shocking Behavior’: Only 1.5 Percent of Syrian Christians Accepted into Western Nations

Only 1.5 percent of Syrian refugees granted refugee status by Western countries in 2016 were Christians.

The charity Barnabas Fund said the United Nations has “failed miserably” to protect those refugees— of which many are Christians.

“This is shocking behavior by the U.N. and U.K. officials,” said Barnabas Fund’s Martin Parsons in an interview with Express.

“In 2005 the U.N. adopted the responsibility of states to protect citizens from genocide and crimes against humanity. These statistics show that it has failed miserably in this. Christians and other minorities have been treated shamefully by the U.N. And the U.K. has outsourced its own responsibilities in spite of repeated representations.”

According to figures recently released from the charity, Christians make up about 10 percent of Syria’s population.

In the United States, only 125 of the 15,479 Syrian refugees admitted into the U.S. were Christians.

In the United Kingdom, the country sheltered more than 8,000 refugees in 2015 and 2016, but only 70 were Christians. There were only 22 Yazidis, another religious minority.

The United Kingdom’s Home Office responded to the numbers this week, saying: “We are clear that our scheme will prioritize the most vulnerable refugees, and that is why under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees identifies people using established vulnerability criteria.

“We are working with the UNHCR and other partners to reach groups that might be reluctant to register for the scheme for fear of discrimination and unaware of the options available to them. These groups include all religious minorities.”

Many Christian organizations have said that these “promises” are not helping other believers enough.

“We don’t see anything. It’s not happening,” William Hollander, who partners with persecution watchdog Open Doors in Iraq, told The Christian Post in October.

“The big frustration for the Christians and everybody at the moment is that [they] are being betrayed by the political powers.

Photo courtesy: Getty Images

Publication date: November 2, 2017