American actor and film director George Clooney suggested last week that U.S. President Barack Obama should emulate German Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door policy on migrants fleeing war and deprivation in the Middle East and Africa.
Clooney made the suggestion after a private meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin to discuss the crisis in Syria, the European efforts to stem it, and what Hollywood could do to help. He was joined by his wife Amal, a human rights lawyer, and former British foreign secretary David Miliband, who now heads the International Rescue Committee (IRC), according to reports.
The actor claimed that the U.S. "is not doing enough" to help alleviate the crisis in Syria even though the Obama administration has vowed to accept 10,000 asylum seekers from Syria this year and "many more" in 2017.
"The United States needs to do more as we know; 10,000 refugees a year is not enough, that's clear," Clooney said, according to WND.
Clooney was also in Berlin for a film festival premiering his latest movie, "Hail Caesar!" After his meet with Merkel, mediamen asked him questions including on how he felt about the German leader's open-door policy to which he responded that he "absolutely agrees" with it.
Miliband said they discussed what countries can do to solve "what is a global problem, not just a Syrian problem or a German issue."
He also said Merkel "showed very strong leadership and example not just to Europe, but globally."
However, reports of rapes and sexual assaults by Muslim migrants continue to pile up across Germany despite the near total blackout of media coverage since the New Year's Eve assaults on more than 500 German women in Cologne, according to reports.
The latest of these cases involve three teenage girls who were sexually harassed by up to 30 male Muslim migrants at the Sophienhof mall in the city of Kiel last week.
Interior Minister Stefan Studt was "deeply concerned" about the events in Sophienhof as he vowed to investigate the attacks to the full extent of the law and "do everything possible to prevent them from continuing."
Nearly half or more of the migrants who have flooded into Europe over the past two years are Syrians, Afghans, Iraqis, Pakistanis and North Africans.
