Department of State

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 one-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 73,147 refugees admitted to the U.S. in FY 2000, the largest number came from the former Yugoslavia and Africa. 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.

Department of Justice

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 40 different countries. INS also inspects and admits approved refugee applicants to the U.S. and processes refugees' applications for adjustment of status to lawful permanent resident. In FY 2000, refugee admissions represented more than 67 nationalities, with refugees from the former Yugoslavia, Africa, and the former Soviet Union constituting the largest proportion of refugee admissions.

Domestically, officers in eight asylum offices interview and make determinations on the cases of asylum seekers that have reached the U.S. In FY 2000, the Asylum Corps completed 59,882 cases, granting 16,693. Applications were received from 157 different countries. The countries with the greatest number of asylum approvals were China, Somalia, Ethiopia, Colombia, and Armenia. 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 inter-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, and

·         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 U.S. under regulations promulgated by the Secretary of the Department 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.