[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 153 (Tuesday, October 20, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7311-S7312]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


    Refugee Crisis in Greece, Nomination of Gayle Smith, and Ukraine

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I had the privilege of joining Senators 
Shaheen, Klobuchar, and Warren during the recess that just concluded to 
travel to Europe to assess the refugee flow that is spilling into 
Greece and ongoing Russian aggression during our visit to Ukraine.
  I will start with the visit to one of our most important NATO 
European allies, Greece. Greece is struggling, as we all know, with its 
own economic challenges, but now it is facing an overwhelming flow of 
refugees across its border.
  Almost half a million refugees have flown into Greece just this year. 
The bulk of the refugees come from across the Aegean Sea from Turkey. 
They are fleeing war and economic instability in the region. Most are 
from Syria, but there are many others from Afghanistan, Iraq, and other 
countries in peril. Many are middle-class families who are simply 
exhausted from years of horrific war in Syria.
  I met many of them and had a chance to speak to them. Their stories 
are heartbreaking. They are fleeing with their children and whatever 
they can carry. Their destination is uncertain, but they know they 
can't stay in the camps or in Syria. They are the victims of smugglers 
and exploitation. Some of these desperate people are charged 1,000 
Euros just to cross a 2-mile stretch of ocean between Turkey and 
Greece.
  We were on the island of Lesbos, and those who were able to watch 
``60 Minutes'' this week saw a presentation of what is happening on 
that small island of about 80,000 people where more than 400,000 
refugees have come through in the last several weeks. Many of these 
refugees are unaccompanied children.
  At one of the camps, I met a young man who said he was 17--probably 
15--who had come across that stretch of water with his 8-year-old 
sister. Think for a moment what that family must have gone through in 
deciding that it was safer for this 15-year-old to take his 8-year-old 
sister and try to find their way to a safe place in Europe rather than 
stay in war-torn Syria. That is the reality of many of these refugees 
and the plight that they face.
  On this island of Lesbos, 2,000 refugees are arriving every single 
day. The Greek Coast Guard showed us stacks of discarded rubber rafts. 
These rubber rafts are made to hold about 20 people as they cross this 
3-mile stretch of ocean. They packed them with over 50 people. They 
charge 1,000 Euros for each adult and 500 Euros for each child.
  We saw these rafts stacked up and piles of life preservers. Some of 
them are the types of life preservers and jackets that you might 
expect, but others are ridiculous. Some of them are literally pool 
toys, and they say so. They have written right on them that they are 
not to be used as life preservers. These pool toys are strapped to 
those little kids who are put in these rafts that come across that 
stretch of ocean. There were rows upon rows of cheap outboard motors 
that were used to propel these rafts across the straits.
  Incidentally, the smugglers picked someone in the raft and told them 
that they were in charge. They would ask if they knew how to operate 
the motor. If they didn't know how to operate it, they would show them 
how to use it and point them in the right direction. The refugees would 
then head out in the hope that they would make it across safely, and 
many times they didn't.
  Despite Greece's economic hardship, I was impressed with how the 
Greek people were handling this refugee crisis. Processing registration 
centers had been established, and many refugees were quickly on their 
way to resettlement in Europe.
  I mentioned the 15-year-old with his 8-year-old sister. I ran into 
four others who spoke English, and all of them were college graduates 
in their 20s. One of them was a premed student who said: We just 
couldn't live any longer with war in Syria. We were ready to risk our 
lives to find a safer place.
  The mayor of Lesbos has been generous and thoughtful in addressing 
the suffering. He told me he often thought he was handling a ticking 
time bomb with this refugee crisis. Instead, this island has become an 
example of what the rest of the world can do.
  In Athens, we visited with an impressive NGO known as Praksis that is 
giving unaccompanied minors a safe, nurturing place to stay while they 
attempt to place them with families.
  The United States leads the world in financial assistance for this 
Syrian refugee effort, but we have a moral obligation to do that and 
more. I have called on the administration to accept 100,000 Syrian 
refugees. I am a cosponsor of the emergency supplemental bill 
addressing refugee assistance, recently introduced by Senators Graham 
and Leahy.
  Allow me to put the 100,000 number in perspective. Germany has agreed 
to accept 800,000 of these Syrian refugees. It is estimated that there 
are 4 million total. The United States accepted 750,000 Vietnamese 
refugees and over 500,000 Cuban refugees after the Castro regime took 
over. Those Cuban refugees included the fathers of two sitting U.S. 
Senators, one of whom is running for President of the United States. We 
accepted over 200,000 Soviet Jews who were being persecuted in that 
country. We have accepted refugees from Somalia and from different 
places around the world, such as Bosnia. We have assimilated them into 
America, and we can do it again.
  When we go through this process of accepting refugees, we carefully 
check their backgrounds to make sure that they are not a threat to the 
United States or anybody who lives here. I think we should continue to 
do that, but the fact that only 1,700 have made it to our Nation in the 
last 4 years tells us that we need to do more.
  I will continue to be a strong advocate for humanitarian safe zones 
in Syria so the people there can have a safe place to be treated for 
their illnesses and to at least live until this war comes to an end.
  Let me say something else. It is embarrassing for me to stand before 
the Senate and note that on our Executive Calendar, which is on the 
desks of Senators, there includes one nominee, Gayle Smith, who has 
been nominated to be administrator of the United States Agency for 
International Development. She has been sitting on this calendar since 
July 29 of this year.
  The USAID, which she seeks to head, is the premier frontline agency 
for helping refugees. Yet this good woman with a lifetime of experience 
is being held up in the Senate for entirely political reasons. There 
are no objections to her personally, and there are no objections to her 
background.
  One Senator is holding up her nomination because the Senator stated 
publicly that he objects to the President's Iran nuclear agreement. 
Gayle Smith had nothing to do with that. The USAID had nothing to do 
with that. Shouldn't we appoint this good person to manage this agency 
to deal with this international refugee crisis?
  While we are at it, they are asking that Thomas Melia of Maryland be 
the assistant administrator. Wouldn't we want competent management when 
we are talking about billions of American

[[Page S7312]]

tax dollars being spent wisely in this humanitarian effort? Yet they 
languish on this calendar.
  If there are objections to these nominees, state them. If not, 
approve them.
  After Greece, we had a visit to Ukraine. I believe what is happening 
there is deeply important to us in the United States, and I am 
committed to seeing that Ukraine succeed as a Democratic sovereign 
nation. It is hard to describe what has happened there in a year and a 
half. A shamefully corrupt regime which is deeply influenced by Russia 
was rejected by the Ukrainian people. As the country tried to get back 
on its feet and build a more transparent and Democratic future, Russia 
and Vladimir Putin staged an invasion first by taking over Crimea and 
then by invading eastern Ukraine.
  The Russians have turned eastern Ukraine into a dysfunctional, grim, 
and abandoned wasteland, somehow under the illusion that it would be 
the new Russia. More than a million people have been displaced in 
eastern Ukraine and thousands have been killed. The captured land was 
even used as a base to shoot down a civilian airliner, killing 
hundreds. A recent Dutch investigation showed that this was done with 
Russian weaponry. If only President Putin would try to help with the 
investigation of the Malaysian plane that was shot down instead of 
nakedly blocking the effort of the U.N. Security Council, we would have 
even more information about this horrible tragedy.
  Despite agreeing in Minsk to a pullback of heavy weapons, exchange of 
prisoners, and return of border control in the east, Russia has dragged 
its feet on every term of the agreement, incorrectly hoping that the 
world will not notice. We notice.
  Yet amid all this transparent and barbaric effort to undermine 
Ukraine, the country has found a new unity and determination. It has 
taken on significant reforms. During my visit with my fellow Senators, 
I was struck by how many dedicated Ukrainians are working for a better 
future. They are now members of Parliament and local officials coming 
right out of the Maidan demonstration. They are giving everything they 
can for the future of their country.
  I have been a strong supporter of President Obama's efforts to 
support Ukraine to train and equip its military and provide significant 
assistance for their courageous effort. As the world's attention is 
distracted to many other challenges, let's not lose sight of the 
ongoing struggle in Ukraine. The United States and Europe must remain 
united on sanctions against Russia as long as it continues to invade 
and occupy a sovereign nation like Ukraine.
  I will conclude by recognizing the many dedicated Foreign Service 
officers working in our embassies that we meet with on our trips. They 
are on the frontlines of American leadership and generosity. Ambassador 
Geoffrey Pyatt in Ukraine and Ambassador David Pearce in Greece are two 
we worked with during our recent visit.
  As the Republicans threaten government shutdown after government 
shutdown, let us not forget that these men and women and many like them 
literally risk their lives every single day standing up and 
representing the United States around the world.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.