US cities welcome refugees despite governors

The mayors of Detroit and Austin said they are welcoming Syrian refugees despite pushback by their states’ Republican governors following the deadly attacks in Paris.

Detroit mayor Mike Duggan said his city can support 50 Syrian families annually for the next three years, and is “moving down that road”. Austin mayor Steve Adler said his city has accepted three Syrian refugees in the past two years and another is coming.

The Democrats spoke on Monday during a White House-arranged conference call, a week after numerous Republican governors spoke out against federal refugee policies.

Texas governor Greg Abbott has instructed refugee resettling organisations to stop helping Syrians.

Michigan governor Rick Snyder, who has lobbied federal officials for refugees and immigrants, urged a pause in the resettlement programme until security concerns are addressed.

Canada will accept only whole families, lone women or children in its mass resettlement of Syrian refugees, while unaccompanied men — considered a security risk — will be turned away.

Details of the plan will be announced on Tuesday but Canada’s ambassador to Jordan confirmed that refugees from camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey will be flown to Canada from Jordan starting December 1.

Meanwhile, a fire sparked by an electrical fault killed 18 African migrants and injured 43 others on Tuesday at a camp in Algeria, emergency services and the Red Crescent said.

The blaze began before dawn at the camp housing about 600 migrants in Ouargla, 800 km southeast of Algiers. The victims’ nationalities were not immediately known.

“The fire broke out at 3.00 am, killing 18 people and wounding 43,” Colonel Farouk Achour said by telephone.

The Red Crescent said that 27 people were still being treated in hospital.