March 17, 2010

NEW YORK – Church World Service marked yesterday's 30th anniversary of the U.S. Refugee Act both with words of appreciation and a call for legislative reform of the U.S. Refugee Program to meet the needs of modern-day refugees and the communities that welcome them. Accordingly, it is urging support for The Refugee Protection Act of 2010, introduced in the U.S. Senate on March 15.

"When the Refugee Act was signed into law on March 17, 1980, creating the U.S. Refugee Program, it systematized procedures for the admission and resettlement of some of the most vulnerable people in the world," noted Erol Kekic, Director of the CWS Immigration and Refugee Program.

"The new program recognized the spontaneous assistance that several voluntary agencies, including Church World Service, had been extending to new refugee arrivals for decades," he said. "It allocated resources and set standards for refugees' reception while respecting the agencies" creativity in engaging their diverse constituencies in welcoming refugees. In 1980, U.S. refugee resettlement became a true public-private partnership."

Church World Service, the global ecumenical humanitarian agency, has resettled nearly 500,000 refugees to the United States since 1946, when U.S. denominations organized themselves to assist Europeans uprooted by World War II. They enlisted congregations to "cosponsor" arriving families and help them regain self-sufficiency.

Among partners in the U.S. Refugee Program since 1980, CWS works today with its 33 community-based affiliates and its member communions and denominations to welcome refugees from around the world – last year, nearly 6,500 from 39 countries toward total U.S. arrivals of nearly 75,000 – providing new arrivals with initial housing, essential furnishings, food and other basic necessities, clothing and community orientation.

The Refugee Act of 1980, a bipartisan bill, "represented the commitment of the U.S. government to refugee protection," Kekic said. "We applaud the United States for continuing to accept persecuted people solely on the basis of their need."

According to the 2009 World Refugee Survey, more than 13.6 million people in the world today are refugees – people driven from their countries by war, civil conflict, persecution or human rights abuses. Many will never be able to return home or integrate into their country of first asylum. Third-country resettlement is available to less than one percent of all refugees.

The Refugee Act "embodied provisions that at the time were novel and created a program to meet the needs of refugees in the 1980s – mostly people fleeing communist regimes in Vietnam and the former Soviet Union," Kekic said.

"Over the past 30 years, as we have resettled a more diverse population of refugees including the Sudanese Lost Boys and today's refugees from Iraq, Burma and Bhutan, we as a country have grown in our understanding of the protection and assistance needs of refugees. It is now time to renew our commitment to refugees by enacting legislation that updates the program to meet the needs of modern-day refugees and asylum seekers and the communities that welcome them."

That is why CWS applauds the introduction of The Refugee Protection Act of 2010, introduced in the U.S. Senate on March 15. It seeks to:

• expedite refugee family reunification

• admit refugees as lawful permanent residents ("green card" holders), eliminating the current one-year waiting period, thus speeding integration

• increase the efficiency of processing for refugees

• ensure that victims of terrorism are not erroneously categorized as terrorists and barred from entry

• update the reception and placement grant annually for inflation and the cost of living

"These measures would strengthen the refugee program and improve the lives of refugees and asylum seekers in the United States," Kekic said.

Church World Service