Official concerned over low number of refugees being admitted to U.S.

Published: 2003-10-10

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Bush administration says significant progress has been made in improving how refugees are admitted into the United States, but for the third year in a row the number of refugees who reached the country was significantly below expectations. Refugee policy experts at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops are taking the government's assurances that procedures have been greatly improved with a grain of salt, according to Kevin Appleby, director of migration policy for the USCCB's Migration and Refugee Services. "They're saying the right things," Appleby said. "But we're not seeing the corresponding actions." An administration report to Congress released in late September said new procedures are, "after many difficulties, streamlining security processing in a meaningful way." Still, only about 28,000 refugees arrived in the United States out of an allocation of 70,000 for the 2003 fiscal year. In 2002, about 27,000 reached the country. "Twenty-eight thousand for two years (in a row) is unacceptable," Appleby told Catholic News Service.

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