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Refugee advocates and politicians, including Senators Orrin Hatch, Edward Kennedy, Sam Brownback, and Bill Frist, are asking Bush to help those refugees in limbo because of security concerns. In October, Brownback, R-Kansas, introduced the North Korean Refugee Relief Act of 2002. It would solve a technical problem that inhibits American assistance, Brownback said.

Refugee advocates recommend that the Bush administration authorize 100,000 refugee admissions to make up for last year's shortfall. But that's unlikely without fundamental changes in the program, according to a September report to Congress.

The Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (BPRM) reported that more lengthy background checks and other factors have dramatically slowed processing time. "We must first recover from the setbacks of [fiscal] 2002 before we can grow the program," the bureau said.

The bureau said new security procedures enacted since 9/11 play a role in the decline. The report also said the Immigration and Naturalization Service (ins) has discovered fraud or misrepresentation in 40 percent of approved family reunion cases. (Resettlement programs attempt to expedite family reunion.)

But World Relief's Carey said that alleging fraud is a weak excuse for lowering refugee admissions ceilings, adding: "The response to fraud should be to improve verification standards."

Carey said a significant number of fraud allegations concerned legitimate refugees who claimed a closer relationship to family in the U.S. than really existed.

Aside from the 9/11 attacks, achieving refugee admission status is a lengthy exercise. First, a United Nations agency or a U.S. Embassy must refer a person to the BPRM. The bureau then decides whether the applicant meets the State Department's established criteria for refugee status. To qualify, a person must be persecuted, or be in danger of persecution, because of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. The bureau then presents the applicant's case to the ins for screening. The ins links an approved refugee with a resettlement organization.

Nonprofit agencies help with practical matters, such as finding a home and a job. Among the 10 agencies authorized by the Department of State to resettle refugees, only World Relief is evangelical. Working with evangelical churches and volunteers, the agency has resettled 180,000 refugees from 30 countries in 27 communities since 1978—up to 10,000 per year.

World Relief helped Barkad, who has a work permit but is not a U.S. citizen. After working as a travel agent, she is now studying to be a respiratory therapist.

There are many other success stories. A former military officer from Vietnam told his resettlement story to ct, provided he was not named. Vietnamese communists had sent the officer to a re-education camp. He escaped by boat, and a Malaysian navy ship rescued him. The United States eventually admitted him as a refugee. He is now a Christian who helps other refugees.

Back in the refugee camp in Kenya, the waiting continues. Barkad doesn't know what more she can do. "They were already approved," Barkad said. "I don't understand it."

Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

The official presidential determination on refugees is available online at the White House site.

An in-depth article of the restrictions is online at the site of the U.S. Committee for Refugees.

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January 2003, Vol. 47, No. 1