The Biden administration only allowed 2,050 refugees to resettle in the United States in 2021 – the lowest in American history.
The administration of US President Joe Biden is on track to accept the smallest number of refugees of any administration in US history, a new report by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said.
Despite promises to raise the cap on the number of refugees allowed to resettle in the United States – and executive orders signed to overturn many immigration policies implemented by former US President Donald Trump – Biden has yet to signed presidential decision.
A presidential ruling would activate steps Biden has so far taken to reintroduce programs to improve resettlement. Without it, Trump’s policies – including a cap of 15,000 refugee admissions per year – remain in place.
“There has now been an unexplained and unwarranted eight-week delay in issuing the revised refugee admission policy,” the IRC said.
“As a result, tens of thousands of refugees already authorized for resettlement still do not have access to resettlement and more than 700 resettlement flights have been canceled, leaving vulnerable refugees in limbo.”
Due to the delay, the Biden administration only allowed 2,050 refugees to resettle in the United States midway through fiscal year 2021 – the lowest in U.S. history.
The IRC has urged the Biden administration to raise the refugee admission ceiling to 62,500, as stipulated in the administration’s proposal, and swiftly roll back “discriminatory policies” in place.
If presidential ruling remains unsigned, IRC estimates the Biden administration will admit 4,510 refugees in fiscal 2021 – less than half the number in the last year of the Trump administration and less than any president of history.
Those most affected would be refugees seeking asylum in Syria, Yemen and Somalia, since Trump’s ban on Muslim-majority countries is technically still in place, according to the report.
Muslim refugees from other countries are also “disproportionately affected” by Trump-era admission policies, according to the report.
He also said that the admission of refugees from countries subject to “extreme control»Stay almost at a standstill.
These policies will have an impact on refugees seeking to flee dire humanitarian situations, including war and famine, from countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
The delay, IRC said, is “unwarranted” and criticized the administration for failing to use resettlement as “an essential tool to provide refuge to the most vulnerable”.
