If you’ve been paying attention to my life at all recently (And if so, good God, find a hobby.), you’d know that I am currently in the process of immigrating to the United States of America. Though it is a difficult process, I’m fortunate enough to have great people in my support corner. There’s my Lawyer, my friends in California and Washington, my current Employer, my best female friend in Montana, I could go on and on. Though I am lucky and struggling, there’s a group whom my problems pale in comparison to. Of course, I’m talking about refugees currently fleeing a Middle East that is seeing more conflict than it has in decades. Unlike me, these people must struggle with racism, xenophobia and Daesh dickheads stoking fears in the west.

In Canada, media outlets recently picked up the story of Aylan Kurdi. The infamously drowned Syrian boy whose image shamed the world a few weeks back. At first, initial reporting made it seem like the family opted to make the dangerous journey across the sea after their application for Asylum in Canada was rejected. This was later debunked. To his credit, Prime Minister Harper did address the situation, he called it heart breaking and did pledge to do more. But when reports are coming out that suggest the government makes it difficult for gay people to come to the nation and won’t admit any non Canadians to the nations consulate in Turkey so that they may apply to escape the Hell they currently find themselves in, one can assume that doing more of the same will probably lead to equally horrible results for these suffering people.

Aside from insane bureaucratic hoops, refugees also have to deal with the stigma of being looked at as possible Daesh members slipping in among those who genuinely need help. To that, I say that I agree with statements from the English Democrats Chairman Robin Tilbrook. For an organization that prides itself on its so-called battlefield prowess (And apparently thinks “hacking” can be done by posting public info online.), it wouldn’t make sense to insert a squad through a disarrayed system without proper kit and equipment. Its possible, but doubtful. Ask yourself this as well, how many Viet Cong secretly infiltrated America by hiding with refugees from that conflict when they all came to North America? Can you name a single incidence of that happening? Or how about after the first Gulf War? Did any bad guys come back then?

Bottom line is this, there’s nothing wrong with being careful. But when you make a system so difficult and insanely complex that people would rather risk death and come illegally than go through it via legal means, you have blood on your hands as a public servant. We need a better system for refugees and need to stop stigmatizing them for being Middle Easterners. Were I from the region, I probably wouldn’t be in the United States of America today. And that is sad.