News / Foreign Policy

Obama threatens to veto GOP anti-refugee bill

Thursday, 19 November 2015 1:15 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 19 November 2015 1:24 AM ]

US President Barack Obama speaks during a meeting with Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) leaders and trade representatives on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Manila on November 18, 2015. (photos by AFP)

US President Barrack Obama will not sign a House Republican bill to reject entry to Syrian and Iraqi refugees, fleeing Daesh violence in the war-ravaged countries.

The While House said in Statement of administration policy on Wednesday that “if the President were presented with H.R. 4038, he would veto the bill.”

He will do so because of “lives at stake and the critical importance to our partners in the Middle East and Europe.”

"This legislation would introduce unnecessary and impractical requirements that would unacceptably hamper our efforts to assist some of the most vulnerable people in the world, many of whom are victims of terrorism, and would undermine our partners in the Middle East and Europe in addressing the Syrian refugee crisis," it added.

*A woman carries a child as migrants and refugees walk near Gevgelija, after crossing the Greece-Macedonia border, on November 18, 2015.*

The Republican-weighted Congress is still dealing with the bill. The House of Representatives will vote on it on Thursday, and then it will also have to be approved by the US Senate before it reaches Obama’s desk.

Representatives Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) and House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas), authors of the bill, say they seek a “pause” in the admission of Syrian and Iraqi refugees.

The new bill came in the wake of deadly attacks by Daesh terrorists in Paris, which left some 130 dead and hundreds others injured in Paris.

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