George Clooney: ’US needs to do better in helping ease migrant crisis’

George Clooney was speaking to Sky News after he and his lawyer wife Amal had a private meeting on Friday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, to discuss the crisis in Syria and Europe’s efforts to help refugees.

The Clooneys were accompanied by David Miliband, the former British Foreign Secretary who now heads the aid group International Rescue Committee.

Miliband said it was the actor’s idea to ask for a meeting with Merkel, who has received both applause and criticism for letting hundreds of thousands of refugees come to Germany over the past year.

Clooney said: "What we try to do is raise awareness and talk about these things. We are at a point politically, when we go to elections, we go through a little madness every four years where extremes get to become, they sound like they are part of the norm - they aren’t.

"We’re not xenophobic as a country and we are not going to be banning Muslims as anyone would be suggesting, that’s not going to happen. This is just a period of time that the loudest voices are sometimes the most extreme."

He added: "So the reality is we as Americans, we as the world, have to start paying more attention to these people. These aren’t people who are fleeing to just come and have fun in Germany, you know, these are people who are dying.

And they are mothers and fathers and children that are running because of being murdered, all over the world. And we can at times become a little isolationist because we don’t have them at our doorstep, right now.

We need to do better, certainly in aid."

Clooney, who is known for his human rights work and has supported the IRC on other projects, is currently attending the Berlin Film Festival to showcase his new movie "Hail, Caesar!"

Merkel told reporters later on Friday that she had had "a very good conversation" with the Clooneys and Miliband, exchanging ideas for how aid groups and governments can cooperate to encourage citizens to volunteer to help refugees.