US to Increase Refugee Admissions
On Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry announced today that the U.S. will significantly increase its numbers for refugee resettlement in the course of this next year and the year after.
As NPR reports, Secretary Kerry is pledging that the United States will significantly increase the number of migrants it accepts over the next two years, ratcheting up to 100,000 annually by 2017. The move, consistent with the response of various European nations in the face of a migrant crisis that has seen hundreds of thousands of refugees from fighting in Syria and Iraq flood into Western Europe, is modest compared to the scale of the situation that exists for European Union countries.
“In consultation with Congress, we will continue to explore ways to increase those figures while maintaining robust security,” Kerry told a news conference after meeting German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. “The need is enormous, but we are determined to answer the call.”
The State Department has collected information about organizations through which specific relief and charitable organizations working on the crisis in Syria.
KJ