“While America has a proud tradition of refugee resettlement, the United States lacks the information needed to confidently screen refugees from the Syria conflict zone to identify possible terrorism connections,” the report called “Syrian Refugee Flows: Security Risks and Counterterrorism Challenges” said.
While the US government does not have access to any database in Syria for background checks of incoming asylum-seekers against criminal and terrorist records, more than 90% of Syrian refugee applicants get approved, the report added.
President Barack Obama announced in September that the United States would take in 10,000 Syrian refugees in 2016. The United States has accepted 1,500 Syrian refugees since 2011.
Refugees of any nationality who are resettled in the United States go through several levels of screening before being admitted to the country, including interviews by the Department of Homeland Security as well as security checks by the Department of Defense and the FBI.
