US Refugee Resettlement Lags Years Behind Middle East Interventions - DoS

The US refugee resettlement program took years to get started in Iraq following the US military intervention there, and will take years in Syria as well, US State Department Deputy Director of Refugee Admissions Kelly Gauger told Sputnik on Monday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Leandra Bernstein — The United States has been involved in arming so-called moderate Syrian rebels in Syria since 2011. In September 2014, the United States began a bombing campaign in Syria in response to the spread of the Islamic State terrorist group in the country.

More than 4 million Syrians have fled their country since the start of the Syrian civil war.

"I know people don't like this answer, but it takes a long time the US resettlement program to get moving," Gauger said of US responsibility for resettling Syrian fleeing violence.

"It is now getting moving for Syrians," she said, noting that in the next five years "I am sure that we would have admitted tens and tens of thousands of Syrian refugees."

Gauger explained that the US program for resettling Iraqis only got started in 2007 or 2008, four years after the US military invasion of the country.

Since 2007, the United States has resettled more than 126,000 Iraqi refugees, according to the State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.