Clooney tackles refugee crisis with Merkel as he calls for the U.S. to do more

George Clooney held talks with German chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday as he called for the US to do more to ease the refugee crisis in Europe. The Hollywood A-lister and his wife, Amal, met Ms Merkel where their discussions focused on refugee policies and their involvement in the aid group International Rescue Committee. Former British foreign secretary David Miliband, who now heads the IRC, said afterwards they had discussed what countries around the world could do to solve “what is a global problem, not just a Syrian problem or a German issue”. On Thursday night, speaking at the premiere of Hail, Caesar! at the Berlin film festival, he said: “The US needs to do more as we know, taking 10,000 refugees a year is not enough, that’s clear.”

We want to ask her [Ms Merkel] what we can do … what Hollywood’s involvement could be - and what the United States should be doing as well.

George Clooney

America has committed to accepting 10,000 Syrians this year and 85,000 refugees in total. Refugees play a central role on and off screen at this year’s festival, in a city which has seen 80,000 refugees arrive in the past year . There are more than a dozen films in the festival programme which focus on people fleeing from war and oppression. Dieter Kosslick, the festival’s director, said Germany felt a responsibility to do more because of its history. “We are in Berlin, a very specific city in history, it has to be much more acceptable in Germany to have refugees because we have a bad history,” he said.

The red carpet is not just about glitz and shine, it also has something to do with responsibility

Festival director Dieter Kosslick

clooney