Baltimore Sun: O'Malley calls for U.S. to receive at least 65,000 Syrian refugees

Reuters

By Jessica Anderson, Sept. 4, 2015, Baltimore Sun

Former Gov. Martin O'Malley is calling for the United States to accept at least 65,000 Syrian refugees by the end of next year.

O'Malley, a Democratic candidate for president, made the statements after reports of the deaths of a Syrian woman and her two sons who drowned during a voyage from Turkey to Greece, in attempt to escape the war-ravaged nation.

Images of the 3-year-old boy's body washed up on a beach, and other images of hundreds trying to board trains in Hungary, have focused world attention on the desperate wave of migration.

"The images of poor Aylan Kurdi's body washed up on a Turkish beach and the family seeking refuge in Hungary by clinging to the railroad tracks should spur all of us to ask what we personally can do to alleviate the suffering of others," O'Malley said in a statement release Friday.

Four million refugees have fled Syria's civil war. More than 10,000 children have died in the four-year conflict, according to the U.N. children's agency, UNICEF.

More: www.baltimoresun.com