South Asia Center Nonresident Senior Fellow Barbara Slavin writes for Al Monitor on the US acceptance of Syrian refugees:
Anne Richard, assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, says the United States will have accepted 2,000 Syrian refugees for permanent resettlement by September and will take “thousands more” next year to help cope with the world’s worst refugee crisis.
In an interview with Al-Monitor July 14, Richard acknowledged that the pace of resettlement has been slower than she had hoped. She said the reason was the extraordinary amount of scrutiny Syrian refugees are required to undergo to make sure that there are no potential or actual terrorists or other criminals among them.