U2 frontman Bono is using his spotlight to shine a light on the plight of refugees, calling the refugee crisis a "global problem."
"We now know that what goes on in the Middle East or North Africa this year will spill onto the streets of Paris or Brussels next year and, God forbid, onto the streets of America," Bono said today on "Good Morning America," referring to the recent terrorist attacks in Brussels and Paris.
"We cannot separate ourselves from what’s going on in the outside world anymore. It’s our world. That’s what comes with globalization," he said. "With global impact, we’ve got responsibilities."
The 55-year-old rocker spoke to "GMA" from the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, home to approximately 80,000 refugees, mostly from Syria.
"The government here has told us they think one-quarter of their population are refugees," Bono said of Jordan. "Their generosity is right at its elastic limit."
"We need to get behind them and countries like them that are looking after us and trying to represent our values and I think that’s very important for Americans to hear that they have an ally in Jordan," he said.
Bono said the refugee crisis's explosion in growth means that all countries and citizens, "need to get more on top of it."
"This was a problem that was just a few years ago, 10,000 people a day were forcefully displaced from their homes," he said. "At the moment it’s 40,000 people per day displaced from their homes."
Bono is working with the One campaign he co-founded to activate the group's seven million members to help and encourage others to act.
The musician has taken to Instagram to document his experiences meeting with refugees. Bono and his U2 bandmates have also highlighted the crisis while on tour, showing footage of refugees on concert screens.
The band's message is that if a solution is not found for the refugee crisis, Europe will be no more.
"If what happened in Syria were, God forbid, to happen again to another country, it’s happening already in Libya but, God forbid, Nigeria, Europe is no longer viable," Bono said. "That’s a big problem for America."
"As well as being a big trade partner, Europe is America’s greatest ally," he continued. "Jordan, where I’m standing, is a really critical ally of America and, as it happens, a lesson of grace in the way they’re treating the refugee crisis."
As Bono spoke at the refugee camp, children could be seen running and playing behind him.
"Remember, all these kids, all these lives, they want to be friends of America. They want to be friends of liberty," Bono said. "These places can be sort of universities in teaching people our values or else they can be places that are dangerous to our ideas and who we are so let’s take the first course, not the second."
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