What is the United States Refugee Program and Who Benefits?
Every year millions of people around the world are displaced by war, famine, civil unrest, and political unrest. Others are forced to flee their countries in order escape the risk of death and torture at the hands of persecutors. In mid-1998, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimated the world’s population of refugees and asylum seekers to be 13 million. The United States works with other governmental, international, and private organizations to provide food, health care, and shelter to millions of refugees throughout the world. Resettlement in third countries, including the United States, is considered for refugees in urgent need of protection, refugees for whom other durable solutions are not feasible, and refugees able to join close family members. In seeking durable solutions for refugees, the United States gives priority to the safe, voluntary return of refugees to their homelands. This policy, recognized in the Refugee Act of 1980, is also the preference of the
