Oct 14 2009

President Obama Publishes FY 2010 Refugee Numbers

In a Presidential Document, written on the last day of September of this year and published in the Federal Register yesterday, the President provided guidance to the Secretary of State to provide for the admission of up to 80,000 refugees to the U.S. during Fiscal Year 2010. The President’s publication allocated certain amounts of refugee numbers to each region of the world, as stated below:

Africa: 15,500
East Asia: 17,000
Europe and Central Asia: 2,500
Latin America/Caribbean: 5,000
Near East/South Asia: 35,000
Unallocated Reserve: 5,000

The unallocated refugee numbers are to be “allocated to regional ceilings, as needed,” wrote the President, and are to be used in regions where the need for additional refugee admissions occurs. Further, refugee numbers can be moved from one region to one or more other regions, when greater numbers for admission are needed in those other regions.

Finally, the President specified that, for Fiscal Year 2010, individuals from the following countries, if otherwise qualified, can “be considered refugees for the purpose of admission to the United States within their countries of nationality or habitual residence:”

(1)People in Cuba
(2)People in the former Soviet Union
(3)People in Iraq

In exceptional cases, people identified by a U.S. Embassy in any location may also be considered a refugee within their country of nationality/habitual residence.