As part of its overhaul of U.S. refugee policy, the Biden administration is planning to offer humanitarian refuge to more children fleeing violence around the world, according to a government report. “Given European countries’ limited resettlement slots, the United States will be a key-partner to increase resettlement for URMs,” the report said, using the acronym for unaccompanied refugee minors.
The commitment is part of the Biden administration’s efforts to rebuild the country’s long-standing refugee program, which was gutted under former President Donald Trump. The Biden administration’s report to Congress noted that this pause in the resettlement of unaccompanied refugee minors comes “just as the global need increases,” noting the plight of minors from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other African countries plagued by conflict and political instability.
Founded in the 1980s, the U.S. Unaccompanied Refugee Minors Program has been a relatively small initiative, but it remains the only one in the world designed specifically for refugee children who can’t be resettled with their parents. More than 13,000 children have been resettled under the program, according to the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The program places refugee children in foster homes across the U.S., connects them with social workers and provides them financial support, as well as educational, legal and recreational services. All refugees receive medical and health examinations before being resettled in the U.S.
Advocates welcomed the Biden administration’s plan, saying refugee children around the world are facing life and death situations. “These children are the most vulnerable of the vulnerable,” Ashley Feasley, the director of policy at the Migration Refugee Services branch of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told CBS News. “These are children in refugee camps or in urban refugee situations who don’t have parents or guardians or even extended family who can suitably care for them.”
Feasley’s group and the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service are calling on the Biden administration to allocate 1% of all refugee spots to unaccompanied children. This would translate to 625 spots if the administration follows through on its proposal to institute a 62,500-person ceiling for the current fiscal year, and 1,250 spots during fiscal year 2022, when Mr. Biden has pledged to set a goal of resettling up to 125,000 refugees.
After President Barack Obama set an ambitious goal in 2016 of admitting 110,000 refugees, President Trump slashed the annual refugee cap every subsequent year, setting a historically low 15,000-person ceiling before leaving office. Trump also narrowed who could be eligible for resettlement.
[CBS News]
