US Refugee Screening for Terrorists Needs Better Controls to Spot Fraud - Report

US officials responsible for admitting refugees from terror-prone countries need improved mechanisms to spot fraud by applicants, according to a report by General Accountability Office (GAO) on Monday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — "Although State and USCIS [Customs and Immigration Services] perform a number of fraud risk management activities and have responded to individual instances of applicant fraud, these efforts do not position State and USCIS to assess fraud risks program-wide for USRAP [Refugee Admission Program]," the report stated.

Moreover, without program-wide fraud monitoring, neither the Department of State nor USCIS are unable to determine if their efforts effectively target "areas of highest risk" in the US refugee program, the report explained.

GAO said it produced the report in response to concerns over increased refugee applications from countries where terrorists operate, while noting that many details were excluded from the unclassified version of the report.

President Donald Trump has cited a need for improved refugee screening in an executive order that blocks nationals from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the United States for 90 days and suspends refugee admissions for 120 days.

The order remains in effect, despite some court ordered limitations on the ban of nationals from the six Muslim nations who have visas to visit relatives in the United States.