Even as mounting terrorism fears have prompted U.S. governors to declare their unwillingness to allow entry to incoming Syrian refugees, more than 2,000 of them have actually arrived and are now staying in at least five U.S. states, government records show.
These refugees have been resettled in California, Texas, Michigan, Arizona and Illinois, according to the State Department's Refugee Processing Center, as reported by Fox News.
The governors of these states—except California—have all declared that they would not accept any more new arrivals from Syria.
According to U.S. State Department figures, since January 2012, California has received 251 Syrian refugees; Texas 242; Michigan 206; Arizona 168; and Illinois 157.
The same figures reveal that 2,098 (96 percent) of the Syrian refugees who have been admitted to the U.S. are Muslims and only 53 (3 percent) are Christians, the Christian News Service (CNS) pointed out.
The remaining 33 include one Yazidi, eight Jehovah's Witnesses, two Baha'i, six Zoroastrians, six of "other religion," seven of "no religion," and three atheists, CNS reported.
The Muslim-Christian disparity among the refugees is even greater than Syria's population in early 2011 – before the start of the civil war and the emergence of Islamic State (ISIS) that sparked the mass exodus. Syria's population then was 90 percent Muslim and 10 percent Christian.
This disparity is blamed on the "unintentional" discriminatory procedures being done by the United Nations agency that takes care of processing the refugees.
Human rights activists noted that Syrian Christians fleeing ISIS persecution generally avoid going to U.N. refugee camps to register themselves since they are also targeted by Muslims in those camps.
"Those camps are infiltrated by ISIS and jihadist groups," said Nina Shea, the director of the Center for Religious Freedom and an international human rights lawyer. "The women would be vulnerable to rape and sex trafficking and the men would have to swear allegiance to the caliphate, according to aid people who have been in the camps."
Since the U.S. government relies solely on the U.N. data on refugees, very few Christians—those brave enough to register with the U.N.—get the chance to be given asylum.
On Monday, in the wake of the Paris terror attacks, Arkansas Republican Senators Tom Cotton and John Boozman called for a temporary moratorium on the resettlement of the refugees to the U.S. because of the discrimination issue concerning the U.N. referrals of refugees to the U.S. government.
"The United States' reliance on the United Nations for referrals of Syrian refugees should also be re-evaluated," they said. "That reliance unintentionally discriminates against Syrian Christians and other religious minorities who are reluctant to register as refugees with the United Nations for fear of political and sectarian retribution."
"Fully aware of the victimisation that is likely to await them in refugee camps, Iraqi and Syrian believers are mainly taking shelter in schools, churches, and apartments, or with relatives where possible," said Patrick Sookhdeo, international director of Barnabas Fund, a charity campaigning to help rescue Christians from Syria.
What the U.S. government should then do is to work with churches in Syria and other neighbouring countries where the persecuted Christians are currently seeking shelter, refugee advocates say.
