Rohingya refugees outpace Syrian arrivals in US

Children from Iraq stand behind the fence as a policewoman stands guard at Amygdaleza pre-departure center for refugees and migrants who are asking to return home, in Athens, on Wednesday. (AP)

CHICAGO: The resettlement of refugees from Middle Eastern countries, particularly Syria, has been the center of a heated political debate after President Barack Obama last year pledged to resettle at least 10,000 refugees from the war-torn country in the United States.
But refugees from Myanmar, whose leader Aung San Suu Kyi visited Washington last week, have quietly outpaced Syrian arrivals in recent years, even as Syria’s civil war intensifies, with an increasing number coming from the marginalized Rohingya Muslim community, according to State Department figures.
From Oct. 1, 2015 to Sept. 15, 11,902 Myanmar nationals were resettled in the United States, according to figures from the Refugee Processing Center, operated by the State Department, compared to 11,598 arrivals from Syria over the same time period.
That was out of a total of nearly 79,600 refugees who arrived in the United States in that period.
The largest group, numbering just over 15,000, were from the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. Arrivals from Syria, where Daesh and other radical groups are active, are subject to additional screening processes, according to the White House.