The New York Times
UNITED NATIONS — The Obama administration’s effort to step up asylum for Syrian refugees is going so slowly, it may not meet the president’s deadline for accepting at least 10,000 by the end of the fiscal year.
More than seven months since the president pledged to resettle the most vulnerable Syrians, the United States has let in less than a fifth of that number — 1,736 through the end of April, according to government figures.
That slow pace could undermine the administration’s diplomatic push to advance the cause of refugees at a time when other countries are putting up taller barriers to their entry. President Obama and the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, have said they will raise the issue of refugee resettlement at this year’s General Assembly session, and Mr. Ban issued a report on Monday calling on world leaders to rally around a new “compact on responsibility-sharing for refugees.”
Advocates for asylum seekers have urged the United States to do more, and have warned that delays in the refugee-vetting process could make it difficult to meet the administration’s goal by the end of September, when the current fiscal year ends.
“The United States cannot lead by example unless the administration meets this year’s very modest goal and sets a more meaningful and ambitious goal for next year,” said Eleanor Acer, the senior director for refugee protection at Human Rights First, an advocacy group.
The delays, advocates argue, are a result of inefficiencies in the asylum adjudication system, insufficient staffing to vet would-be refugees and the often lengthy security checks that Syrians are required to undergo as part of their application.
Anne C. Richard, the assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, said in a statement that the administration remained committed to its promise to take in 10,000 Syrians by the end of September, without cutting back on “robust security screening.”
International law defines a refugee as someone who has fled war or persecution in his or her home country. The United Nations says there are an estimated 19.6 million refugees worldwide. And their plight has drawn urgent attention from the world’s most powerful governments as hundreds of thousands of Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans and others have made the perilous trip across the Mediterranean in search of sanctuary in Europe.
During the General Assembly conclave in the fall, Mr. Ban will try to drum up greater enthusiasm for refugee resettlement. His office said he would call on countries to resettle at least a tenth of the world’s refugee population.
Mr. Ban has said he wants countries to renew their commitment to a 1951 refugee convention that requires countries to offer protection to civilians fleeing war and persecution. That convention is widely flouted, including by European countries, whose leaders were once the driving force behind such a push at the end of World War II, when Europeans were the ones seeking refuge.
Mr. Ban has repeatedly called on world leaders to accept refugees, but his pleas have been met with reluctance and political and diplomatic maneuvers devised to ease the burden on European governments.
In March, at a refugee resettlement conference, United Nations officials said close to half a million Syrians needed new permanent homes away from the region. But few countries pledged to take them in, prompting a strongly worded rebuke from international aid groups. Instead, the European Union began in April to deport asylum seekers to Turkey, part of a political deal that human rights groups said was fraught with legal problems.
The report that Mr. Ban issued this week also pressed countries to start negotiating a deal to embrace migrants who are crossing borders for reasons other than war, including “hazards related to climate change.” Those discussions, which he said he hoped would start this year, are likely to be even thornier.
Most of the world’s four million Syrian refugees live in countries in the region: Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.
Canada has offered visas to more than 48,000 Syrians, according to the United Nations, and is also allowing private groups to sponsor Syrian families. More than 400,000 Syrians sought asylum in Germany last year, and Brazil has issued nearly 8,500 humanitarian visas to Syrians.
At the General Assembly debate that is scheduled to begin on Sept. 20, Mr. Obama plans to lead a special session at which world leaders are expected to publicly pledge to take in more refugees.
Russia, a major supporter of the government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, has not resettled a single Syrian refugee, according to the United Nations.
Mr. Obama’s announcement last September that the United States would take in at least 10,000 Syrians in the current fiscal year was part of his effort to resettle more refugees generally, from an average of about 70,000 a year to 85,000 a year over the next three years.
The United Nations high commissioner for refugees has identified nearly 39,000 Syrians to be resettled to the United States. Agency officials said the refugees included widows with children and torture victims, along with Syrians who have relatives living in the United States already. Many have faced delays.
In a scathing report, Ms. Acer’s group cited the example of a Syrian baby in need of heart surgery, who died in Jordan before his family’s resettlement papers were approved.
Some members of Congress have sought to halt refugee admissions from Syria, and two Republican governors — Chris Christie of New Jersey and Sam Brownback of Kansas — have said they will not let the federal government send Syrians to be resettled in their states.
A State Department spokeswoman said in an email on Monday that the administration had expanded staffing in Jordan to vet refugee applications and also resumed interviews in Lebanon, which had been discontinued over security concerns.
“We expect arrivals of Syrian refugees to increase steadily throughout the year and have increased the number of staff involved in processing Syrian cases to help us meet the 10,000 target,” said Ms. Richard, the assistant secretary of state.