As the international community marks World Refugee Day on Thursday, advocacy groups are sounding the alarm of a dramatic decline in global support for refugees, “led by the U.S.,” despite “increasing need.” Global resettlement needs have increased 17 percent from 2018 to 2019 alone,” the International Rescue Committee said in an analysis of updated global displacement numbers from the United Nations refugee agency.
Yet, the IRC said, “led by the U.S., there has been a nearly 50 percent decline in global resettlement slots, even as countries like Bangladesh, Colombia and Ethiopia have seen their countries swell.” So far, eight months into fiscal year 2019, which began at the start of October, just 18,051 refugees have been welcomed into the U.S. at a rate of around 2,250 a month.
Those numbers stand in stark contrast to the country’s historic average of welcoming more than 6,500 refugees per month since 1980, with an average ceiling of 95,000 per year. In FY 2019, the admissions ceiling has been placed at a historic low, with the cap set at just 30,000 refugees, representing less than a third of the country’s historic average commitment.