Biden Administration Aims to Increase US Number of Refugees

At a ticket agency in Nairobi, Kenya, Abdirizak Noor Ibrahim attends developments in America. Born in Somalia, Abraham left the war-torn Mogadishu in 2004, becoming a refugee. He and his family were approved to move to the United States at the beginning of 2017, when Donald Trump became president and signed the executive order restricting travel from several majority Muslim countries, including Somalia.

I had all the interviews, health control, and everything else. The former president then imposed a ban on travel. I've been here for the last four years. Even before that, I've been here for more than 10 years, hoping that I'll move to the United States”, says the Voice of America of the Somalyz refugee Abdirizak Noor Ibrahimi.

Mr. Ibrahim appreciates lifting travel restrictions from President Biden and expanding the programme for refugee admission to the United States.

I have high hopes that things will change for us”, says Abdirizak Noor Ibrahimi.

Starting in October, the United States will welcome up to 125,000 refugees annually, from a border of 15,000 refugees at the end of the Trump administration.

“will take time to rebuild that system that has been so damaged”, President Biden said.

But some experts see challenges ahead, especially in pandemic times.

There will be a number of challenges, including the level of financing, the level of personnel, simply the start and follow through on these procedures. But undoubtedly the biggest challenge or one of the biggest challenges at the moment to restore that programme to the powerful levels that the American administration would like to see is the pandemic COVID”, says the Voice of America Christopher Boian, with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees' office.

However, refugee housing organisations hope to be again loaded with work.

We really expect the job to come back ... We are planning with some of our existing partners to open additional” offices, says the Voice of America Alicia Warren, housing director and refugee integration with the non-profit HIAS organisation.

But former President Trump's policy advocates have reservations, saying the more rigorous verification helps make sure displaced refugees pose no danger to the United States.

“Pat a review of the property programme at the start of the Trump administration and this must be done over and over again. So, it shouldn't be rejected just because it attached the name of Trump”, says Lora Ries, researcher at the Heritage Foundation.

Refugees' supporters say security concerns are exaggerated.

There is this claim, which is not true, that refugees are potentially criminals or terrorists. The truth is that a refugee is less likely to commit a crime than a country-born American”, says of the American Voice Krish Oʹra Vignarayh, executive director of the Lutheran Services for Refugees and Migration.

In Nairobi, Abraham hopes that his dream will come true as soon as possible.

I'd like to go and move to another place to leave this uncertain life that I've lived here for so many years and have a better life”, says Abdirizak Noor Ibrahim for the Voice of America.