The US President Joe Biden has planned to lift the refugee cap by May 2021. The former President Donald Trump had imposed historically low cap, on refugees. Trump had earlier set the Refugee cap to 15,000. This was the lowest in the history of the US.

What is the issue?

President Joe Biden recently signed an order to keep the refugee cap to 15,000 as of now. This is the same numbers as proposed by Trump. This is creating controversies in the United States as Biden had proposed to increase the refugee cap by four times as compared to that of Trump administration. This was one of the major instruments of campaign during US Elections that was held in 2020. Biden is facing criticism that he is postponing his promises.

Biden’s Proposals

Mr Biden had earlier proposed to the US Congress that he will increase the refugee cap to 62,500. Under his proposal, 7,000 slots were reserved for refugees from Africa, 1,500 from Europe and Central Asia, 1,000 from East Asia, 3,000 from Latin America, 1,500 from south Asia, 3,000 from Latin America and Caribbean. And a reserve of thousand slots shall be used as needed.

Refugee Crisis

• According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, there are 79.5 million forcibly displaced people in the world. This includes 26 million refugees, 4.2 million asylum seekers, 3.6 million Venezuelans displaced abroad, 45.7 million internally displaced people.
• The top source countries of refugees are Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar.
• Around 1% of refugees have fled their homes due to conflicts or persecution.

Current Scenario

As of March 31, 2021, the United States has so far admitted 2,050 refugees. This is under Trump administration cap of 15,000.