WASHINGTON—Mark Hetfield, president and CEO of HIAS, the global Jewish nonprofit that protects refugees, released the following statement in response to the attacks in Paris and Beirut last week.
WASHINGTON—Mark Hetfield, president and CEO of HIAS, the global Jewish nonprofit that protects refugees, released the following statement in response to the attacks in Paris and Beirut last week.
The Refugees Admissions Program "was originally intended to serve as a rescue mechanism, to bring refugees out of danger to a place where they can live in freedom with dignity," HIAS CEO Mark Hetfield writes in The Hill's Congress Blog. "Today, however, it generally takes over 18 months for a refugee to be resettled to the U.S. once he or she is accepted for processing."
In 1989, as a HIAS caseworker, I met many Soviet Jews who had fled Dnipropetrovsk. I never thought I would see the day when that city, the third largest in Ukraine, would again have a thriving Jewish community. But that is exactly what I found.
Launched in July 2013, The Linking Communities Project: Creating Welcome for Refugees is a laboratory for developing innovative ideas to help educate communities about the many benefits of refugee resettlement. This year, TLC chose to work in Minnesota based on the state’s rich history of welcoming refugees.
“I was honored to talk to this group. They know better than most the importance of the work that HIAS does now, having been refugees themselves,” Hetfield said. “They are our inspiration to make sure that refugees are protected, and that refugee families are protected.”
“The mothers kept telling us how thankful they were," a HIAS staffer said. “They were really grateful that their children were able to receive high quality care, and that they were not discriminated against for being refugees.”
António Guterres, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, told the audience at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. that this is a manageable problem for Europe, but “there is one condition for a problem to be manageable -- it must be managed.”
António Guterres, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, told the audience at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. that this is a manageable problem for Europe, but “there is one condition for a problem to be manageable -- it must be managed.”
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