Syrian Refugee Numbers

I read this headline on a right-leaning website:

United Nations says 72% of Syrian “refugees” are MEN, only 13% are children!

I’m reasonably sure that other right-leaning websites offer similar numbers.

In order for refugees to be considered for admission to the United States or other countries, they must first be registered with the UNHCR – the United Nations’ Refugee Agency. On its website, the UNHCR provides a demographic breakdown for 2.1 million Syrians registered by UNHCR in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon, and 1.9 million Syrians registered by the Government of Turkey, and more than 26,700 Syrian refugees registered in North Africa. Here are observations drawn from their data:

• 49.7% are male and 50.3% are female.
• 38.4% are under age 12.
• 51.2% are under age 18.
• 22.1% are males of “fighting age” (18 – 59).
• 70% are women and children under the age of 12.
• 76.6% are women and children under the age of 18.

You can view the data here. These figures may change over time. I am using the latest figures updated on 11/17/2015.

To reiterate: over three quarters of Syrian refugees are women and children, and seventy percent are women and children under age 12. These are people fleeing devastated cities and neighborhoods that are being bombed on a daily basis. They just want to live a life somewhere, have jobs, raise families, go to school – things we take for granted. Could a terrorist sneak into the US along with legitimate refugees? Conceivably, yes. But a determined terrorist could sneak into the US regardless of whether the US accepts refugees. Sneaking in may be difficult, but millions of people have already done it. Banning immigrants is like declaring a theater or school to be a “gun-free zone”. It only stops those people who obey the law.