 Annual ORR Reports to Congress - 1999
Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration
The United. States leads the world in providing assistance to refugees and victims of conflict The U.S. resettles about half of the refugees referred by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for resettlement each year. The Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) has primary responsibility for formulating U.S. policies on these issues and for administering U.S. refugee assistance and admissions programs overseas.
Of the 85,518 refugees admitted to the U.S. in FY 1999, the largest number came from the former Yugoslavia (38,658). and the former Soviet Union (11,403) As in previous years, the President authorized in-country processing in the former Soviet Union, Vietnam and Cuba for persons who would qualify as refugees were they outside their country of origin. In addition, the U.S. offered resettlement to refugees outside their country of origin who were deemed to be of "special humanitarian concern" to the U.S. Highest priority for resettlement was given to refugees referred by UNHCR and by U.S. Embassies. A number of particularly vulnerable groups, including persecuted religious and ethnic minorities, were determined to be of special concern to the U.S. and given priority processing.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Administers immigration and naturalization laws relating to the interview, determination, admission, and naturalization of refugees and asylees. Overseas, INS is responsible for the interview of refugee applicants and the subsequent approval or denial of requests for refugee classification. Last year, immigration officers posted at overseas locations and asylum officers on detail conducted refugee determination interviews in approximately forty different countries. INS also inspects and admits approved refugee applicants to the United States and processes refugees' applications for adjustment of status to lawful permanent resident. In FY 1999, over 85,000 refugees were admitted to the United States, representing more than 60 nationalities, with refugees from the former Yugoslavia constituting the largest portion. Domestically, officers in eight asylum offices interview and make determinations on the cases of asylum-seekers that have reached the United States. In FY 1999, according to preliminary data, the Asylum Corps completed 55,316 cases. The countries producing the greatest number of asylum-seekers in FY 1999 were People's Republic of China, Somalia, Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico. The INS Headquarters main office building is located at 425 I Street, N.W., Washington, DC. Information about INS is available on the Internet web site http://www.ins.usdoj.gov.
Office of International and Refugee Health
The Office of Refugee Resettlement, (ORR) funds the Office of International and Refugee Health (OIRH) through an intra-agency agreement. The Associate Director for International and Refugee Health has administered the DHHS Task Force on Female Circumcision/Female Genital Mutilation (FC/FGM). After conducting seven community meetings around the U.S. with African refugee communities and consulting widely with institutions that train health professionals, DHHS undertook several projects designed to educate U.S. populations that traditionally have practiced FC/FGM about the dangers of the practice to women and girls. With funding provided through Interagency agreements from Women's and Minority Health, ORR funded a national project and several community-based projects to educate populations at risk.
Goals of Refugee Health
The two principal goals of providing health care to refugees coming to the United States are:
- to protect the health of the U.S. population
- to assure that the health status of refugees does not impede their achieving self-sufficiency.
Refugee Health Screening
Overseas health screening of refugees is conducted primarily for the purpose of identifying those individuals who have health conditions which would exclude them from entry into the United States under regulations promulgated by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Individuals with "A" and "B" conditions identified by overseas screening must be referred to U.S. public health officials upon arrival in the U.S. These procedures are intended to protect the health of U.S. residents.
Health screening of refugees after they arrive in the U.S. is directed at both goals. Refugees are screened for health conditions that may impede their ability to become self-sufficient. Refugees are treated for those health conditions that may be a threat to the health of the U.S. population, and are referred for treatment of other acute and chronic conditions that may impede their ability to become self sufficient.