HIAS Responds to Administration’s Plans to Accept 110,000 Refugees in FY 2017

WASHINGTON—In response to the Obama Administration’s plans to resettle 110,000 refugees in Fiscal Year 2017, HIAS President and CEO Mark Hetfield issued the following statement:

“The Obama Administration’s announced plan to resettle 110,000 refugees in FY ‘17 is a positive, welcome and much-needed step. More spaces for resettlement means more families can escape persecution and restart their lives in safety and freedom.

“However, in the midst of the greatest displacement crisis since WWII, and with the President and the UN Secretary General each convening the first refugee summits in recent history next week, even bolder steps are required. This country resettled twice that number of refugees in a year during the Indochinese refugee crisis, and should show that level of leadership once again, urging other countries to share responsibility as Canada, Germany and Sweden have already done.”