KUALA LUMPUR - U.S. President Barack Obama visited a refugee centre in Malaysia on Saturday to highlight his call for more compassion at home to deal with a global migrant crisis, as Republicans seek to block U.S. acceptance of Syrian refugees.

Speaking of the children he met at the Dignity for Children Foundation in Kuala Lumpur, Obama said "that's the face of not only children from Myanmar, that's the face of Syrian children and Iraqi children".

Many of the children at the centre were Muslim Rohingyas who have fled persecution in Myanmar.

Alluding to Republican critics who are trying to halt the flow of Syrian refugees to the United States, Obama said: “The notion that somehow we would be fearful of them, that our politics would somehow leave us to turn our sights away from their plight is not representative of the best of who we are.”

Obama’s visit to the refugee centre came a week after attacks by Islamic State militants in Paris renewed debate over his plan to bring more than 10,000 Syrian refugees into the United States over the next year.

U.S. lawmakers have called for Obama to pause or stop the program altogether, citing concerns it could lead to infiltration of militants who could launch Paris-style attacks.

"Apparently they're scared of widows and orphans coming into the United States of America," Obama said on Wednesday in Manila, where he was attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

He insisted that the process for screening refugees for possible entry into the United States was rigorous and said the United States didn't make good decisions "based on hysteria" or exaggerated risk.(Reuters)