>> i'm ali velshi. "on target" tonight, desperate journeys, i'll look at where syria's refugees can and cannot go. the boon of taking in refugees away it can really do to a country's economy. there is nothing like a crisis to expose how closely a country's actions line up with

its ideals. i'm talking of course of the massive refugee crisis make plag out in europe. hungarian riot police fired water cannons and tear gas, after refugees tried to break through the gate. refugees threw water bottles and rocks and demanded the border be reopened. today's clashes follow the installation of razor wire fences and laws, making it a crime to enter into the country except at legal checkpoints. a sign that the flood of refugees from syria is testing europe's commitment to open borders and the 1951 refugee convention, that is united nations treaty that obligates

anyone to take ref euj those ree entering their shores, that hard logistical reality, people that think of immigrants that don't speak or look like them. a pew study finds that 70% want to limit immigration. taking in refugees will cause economic pain but the truth is: that immigrants are not necessarily a drain on economies. take united kingdom where a royal economic society report found that over 16 years, immigrants in the u.k. were less likely to receive some refugees

from syria and other countries to come in and stay as long as they want. last year sweden received more than 80,000 asylum applications, the most per capita than any european nation. but a growing number of swedes are supporting an antiimmigrant party. david ariosto has the story. >> this is the life he left behind. he decided he had finally had enough after four years in syria.and so like more than 4 million of his countrymen this 28-year-old nurse became a refugee and emptied his savings to pay for the long trek north through europe. piling into a small rickety boat

with 15 others he crossed the sea into greece and then started to walk. >> i said what happened in my country. why there is this war. >> reporter: after a month of traveling sleeping in the woods and facing the near constant threat of arrest, he finall finy made it here to sweden. >> it is colder here right? >> yes it is cold but i like cold. >> reporter: sweden has emerged as a promised land, of sorts, a place for people like him to finally relax. >> when i smile to you and you smile to me i feel great. i feel i am a human. i feel -- only i want that. i want to be safe. >> reporter: sweden is in the midst of a housing crisis yet

gives syrians a permanent resident status. of all the eu countries sweden has taken in the largest number of refugees relative to its population. for a country of less than 10 million people sweden still accepts about 33,000 asylum seekers each year. families like these who are from syria travel up to turkey and migrate all the way through europe and get processed at one of these centers, they learn swedish and get the health care they need but the problem remains, what happens now? for many learn swedish and finding work is a daunting task. some say sweden's open door family has struggled to fully integrate and put pressure on the social welfare system. >> a lot of people don't want to bring more refugees into the

country because they see the problem. >> a right leaning anticorporate party that wants to roll back the welcome mat. >> obviously it costs a lot of money to bring all these refugees in. >> the sweden democrats are the country's most popular political party and many consider the rise a direct backlash against refugees arriving from both iraq and syria. yet others here say it's not that they no longer want to help, but rather, they want others to start sharing more of the burden. >> each country in europe should take people, not only sweden and germany. >> reporter: but for now, this sparsely populated scandinavian country is a beacon, hosting 70,000 refugees from syria. of which sweden has some experience. paid to take in roughly 84,000

refugees from the balkans. >> it's hard to say i'm not going to pay the taxes. think of the effect it would have for people who have nothing and fear for their lives. >> for those like mubarak, that kind of philosopher allows him to start over. >> what do you want to do? >> i want to learn the language, then i can work at my job, in hospital. and like this. maybe to begin a new life. >> david ariosto joins me now. david, was this something that people you talked to knew was going on in sweden, is this a big deal? >> i would say this is topic number one in swede, they have done this in the past, with iraqi refugees and eritrea, in

terms of how many europe is accepting, this is starting to threaten maybe not undermine but threaten the issue of homogeneity in the area. people here say we need these people, we need them to contribute to our economy. it cost another lot when you are talking about housing, stipends and divided schools, it is a different issue. >> is there a sense that they could lead to an open door policy that sweden has had? >> the sweden democrats, 25% of the vote, really wants to roll out the welcome mat. but when you look at immigration minister they're talking about increasing the number, 100,000 from sweden per year. so when you talk about 800,000 coming to europe sweden taking

one 8th of that,. >> not only per capita that they take the largest number but a disproportionate number from europe. sweden has recently taken in a lot of former iraqis who have been refugees. >> the number of refugees into place it is not clear where they are coming from. people are saying they're iraqis or saying they are from syria to get in. but yes if you are in a conflict zone the iraqs, the eritreas, the syrias you have more likely making it as a permanent resident. i'll put the question of why not to a former drail diplomat next. next.

former israeli diplomat next. mat next.

>> the flight of refugees from syria's civil war is posing a dilemma not only to european countries but to countries bordering syria including israel. but israel is not allowing refugees fleeing the conflict to remain in the country. danny ayalla, served as israel's ambassador to the united states from 2002 to 2006.

he said arab states are the only solution to the syrian refugee crisis not israel. this despite calls from some israeli leaders and palestinian leaders to take in refugees. danny ayalla joins us from tel aviv, thank you for joining us. cannot escape this refugee crisis, your country assists syrians in dire need of help, why stop there, why not heed calls from some israeli leaders and palestinian leaders to actually take in these desperate refugees? >> ali, the short answer to your question is israel is very, very small both in size and the population. when we can, we accept as many wounded people, anybody who really needs critical help. and we have committed more than two hospitals, there are more

than a thousand refugees from syria who came over, injured, and they're being taken care of. and we will continue to do that. as about the larger problem, the scope is enormous. i'm not sure even europe with the entire continent over there, can deal with it by itself. so it will take an international i would say response, whether the u.n, but mostly i think the arab league should step up to the plate and just own this problem and try to take care of it. >> ambassador, palestinians are among the syrians fleeing the conflict including from the yarmouk camp. the palestinian u.n. ambassador riad mansour wrote about urging

your country to allow those refugees into the west bank and gaza, what's the harm in your palestinian neighbors assisting in the effort? >> this really takes us into the realm of the political process, which is stuck between assad and the palestinians. if the palestinians would agree oresuming negotiations i believe the two state solutions for two peoples can take care of that. in that sense i believe that a future palestinian state would be happy to absorb their brothers and sisters in their own country, and not in any neighboring country. i think that is the long term solution which is the motion logical, the most -- the most logical, the most humane and most stable and keep stability in the region . >> i agree with that, you deftly skipped the crux of my question so let me ask it a different

way. the palestinian ambassador riad mansour say there are palestinian refugees who originally left israel left palestine when israel was created, their children have left syria and sought refuge in neighboring country. there are still 480,000 palestinian refugees according to him who live in syria. so now we've got about 44,000 of these refugees, now ex palestinian refugees, 44,000 have gone to lebanon, 15,000 has gone to jordan, does israel not bear a highly specific responsibility for take refugees, double refugees who were originally ex israeli refugees now syrian refugees? >> well ali again we have to refer back to history. they are not really israeli refugees because as you

mentioned israel was reestablished or recreated in 1948. there was a partition plan of the u.n. resolves 181 november 29th, 1947, of palestine, a legion, just an administrative unit that was you know, ruled by the ottomans, the turkz, the british were last occupiers, the last ones the british. israel accepted this plan. we wanted to live side by side with peace and stability and security and prosperity with our neighbors. this is our land, we believe that also, there is room for their land as well. but we cannot take ownership of the palestinian refugees because it is not our responsibility. we offered our hand in peace to them. unfortunately, they were leaders who were irresponsible. they attacked us in a civil war.

palestine. there was a civil war between the jews of palestine and the arab of palestine which caused the problem of their refugees. and right now we are not talking about the -- there is no right of return, because there was an act of aggression. not by us. we're talking about third and fourth generations that have nothing to do with being israelis. you know ali after world war ii and before even, there were tens of millions of refugees, hungarians and russians and germans and whatever in europe. nobody asked to return back to where they started and they were absorbed by their countries. i don't know why these refugees, and you mentioned 180,000, these refugees in syria. almost 70 years after israel was established. by the way according to international law it's their responsibility to do it.

what do they do? they kept them in subhuman conditions in refugee camps for 70 years instead of allowing them to get citizenship to get education to get human rights and civil rights to get access to health care and all that. they didn't do it. and so that's why unra was created. but basically i think that we have here regimes that need to take care of, now of course there is no actually effective regime that we can speak of in syria but again you cannot throw back this problem to israel. there is enough place for them either in the palestinian territories or through region. we'll see how the europeans welcome them. >> as a israeli you are familiar with the refrain, these people are not like us, we don't have the room, they are not refugees, that is what was happening to

the eu i jews in the '40s. you and i will not argue about the fact that this is a regional problem it should be solved september you guys are in the region and you know what it's like to be a people in float in boats around the world where nobody wants to take you. >> absolutely. and that's why i think there is really, we are very, very conflicted. that is why we are happy to help in anything we can. with medical help, in kind, and maybe if there will be a larger political settlement of course we would be able to do more. and really help in many massive ways, even in a political way but right now what the europeans say what cameron, prime minister of britain said, the problem should be solved at the source which means in the region in the area. to solve the problem in the

region i think only kind of pan-arabic peace keeping force is the only one. nato will not send anybody, the americans will not send anybody. the russians are actually the only ones with military presence, augmenting the military presence. they are the ones with the iranians and the ayatollahs are really aggravating the situation in syria specifically. so i believe only if there would be some kind of massive intervention where some arab soldiers can stand in between this warring parts and there are so many, maybe we can see some kind of a bright solution and it will not be easy unfortunately. >> i want to ask you about that. you mentioned the hospitals in the north of israel that are treating some of these people and you're right this has not been widely reported and it's good that israel's doing this but there's been reports in israel media, some of the people

treated are parts of these warring factions, antisyrian faction he including the nusra front. is that something that israel doing, is that a good thing or a bad thing? is the enemy of your enemy your friend? >> i think we should be very careful. we cannot intervene in any way. first of all it will not be effective. if we god forbid, siting with one side, would just push it to their side. we are not hiding the fact that we do not like the assad regime. the assad regime is a very dictatorship regime which is a brutal regime which has killed a lot and not only now. already in 1981, 82, his father

hafas assad, killed sunnies, we know this brutality backed up by the iranians, certainly we will not distinguish anybody that comes to our border, we will welcome and treat him well. >> ambassador thank you for taking time to speak with us. danny ayallan, former israeli intor to the uniteambassador to. thank you. >> next we'll go inside one of the largest syrian-american communities in the country. us here. >> what's being done while lives hang in the balance? >> we need help now.

$.

>> fewer than 1500 syrian refugees have settled in the united states since 2011. last week, president obama said the u.s. would take in 10,000 in the next year. patterson is one of the largest syrian communities in the u.s. >> 11 year old. her and her family spent two and a half years in a refugee camp in jordan after fleeing the war in syria. just six weeks ago, she was able to bring her and her siblings to new jersey. >> thank god i was able to bring them back to a normal life.

>> his wife didn't want to appear on television. mohammed is working in construction. the children are in school. but being separated from their extended close knit family is taking a toll. >> we wish we had our grandmother with us, all of our family. >> translator: her grandmother her aunts are still in jordan and we hope we can bring them over together. >> reporter: hundreds of syrians have recently resettled in this part of new jersey. home to a long established syrian american community. >> if you are here for syrian refugees say yes! >> yes! >> a syrian american activist spoke out for solidarity in new york city. >> when everything around you has been destroyed, when all of your family have been dispersed, when you have lost all economic means to support yourself, when

safety and security, human being's number 1 priority is gone, there's nothing to live for anymore. >> reporter: many people i spoke with are too afraid to go on camera. even though they're here in the u.s. they fear the assad regime will retaliate against their family still stuck in the war. >> 82-year-old mohammed is to fearful to use her name. >> i have my family and sisters there, i just have my children here. >> reporter: she praise that nothing would happen to them. abu her 50-year-old son, knows people who are fighting to topple the assad regime. >> the ones that are fighting for justice for their own honor and families and for god, those kind of people will not stop fighting ever.

>> they were killing everybody in the street. i was so upset. >> reporter: mohammed's home town aleppo lies in ruins. one sister was killed and the rest of the family scattered. >> they move the next street two streets farther, we were struggling inside the city. >> reporter: while the question asked over and over in private homes, public streets, why doesn't the u.s. or united nations do more? mohammed can tell his children now they don't have to be scared anymore. >> translator: the ghost of fear that was following us in syria does not exist anymore, thank god. >> this sunday you can watch an al jazeera special report, desperate journeys a global response, that's it, i'm ali velshi, thank you for joining us. us.

>> tsunami warning. a powerful earthquake strikes off the coast of chile shaking residents and sending large waves crashing onto shore. hamharsh tactics, hungarian riot police fire at refugees. and false alarm. >> they arrested me and they told me that