UN Praises Biden For Raising US Refugee Cap To 62,500 - Statement

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi praised US President Joe Biden for his decision to raise the admissions cap on refugees to 62,500 for this fiscal year, a UNHCR statement said on Tuesday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th May, 2021) United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi praised US President Joe Biden for his decision to raise the admissions cap on refugees to 62,500 for this fiscal year, a UNHCR statement said on Tuesday.

"I praise President Biden's move to restore the US' leadership on refugee resettlement. The decision to increase this year's resettlement admissions ceiling and admit up to 62,500 refugees is a measure that will save lives and protect some of the world's most vulnerable," Grandi said in the statement.

Biden announced on Monday that he would raise the refugee admissions cap from its historic lows during the Trump administration after receiving pushback from fellow Democrats for keeping the Trump-era caps in place.

Grandi noted in his statement that in 2020, only 23,000 refugees were officially resettled around the world - the lowest resettlement numbers in almost 20 years.

He also offered continued support from the UN in scaling up the refugee program and expressed hoped that the US move would help encourage other countries to do the same.

As part of his announcement on Monday, Biden said the US was unlikely to meet the higher goal of admitting 62,500 refugees due to the need to hire new staff to process the admission. But he said such steps would allow the administration to increase the admissions cap again next fiscal year to 125,000.