U.S. on track to meet goal of 10,000 refugees by September

VOA News article

August 5, 2016

The United States is on track to meet President Barack Obama’s goal of allowing in 10,000 refugees from Syria for the fiscal year ending in September, the officials said.

“We may exceed 10,000, and for next year we will continue to welcome large numbers of Syrians, but it’s too soon to have a target figure established,” Richard said.

Nearly 80 percent of the Syrians accepted this year by the United States are women and children, officials said.

More than 10 percent of the refugees from Syria have headed to Michigan, which has a significant Arabic-speaking population, especially in Dearborn, the state’s eighth-largest city.

“What we know is that more resources have been put toward the processing of folks who have been pending,” Stacie Blake, spokeswoman for the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, told VOA. “More resources obviously meant that more folks were able to move through the system.”

Image Credit: VOA