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PR NO. 196
refugee issues we face today; and also summarize the situation which prompted the Emergency Consultations in April which led to increase the admissions ceiling for Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Finally, I will present the President's proposal for refugee admissions in Fiscal Year 1989.
Let me also draw your attention to the most recent World Refugee Report submitted by the Department of State. It contains substantial information on the situation of refugees around the world. In addition, you will find the detailed justification for the President's proposals in the document Proposed Refugee Admissions for FY 1989, submitted by the U.S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs, who is with me here, Mr. Jonathan Moore.
RESOURCES
Before I address specific refugee issues, I want to say a word about resources. There are limited resources available for the foreign affairs budget of the United States. At the same time, there are increased refugee needs both for assistance and admissions overseas. Final action has not yet been taken on the FY 1989 foreign assistance appropriations for the refugee program. The conference on that bill will occur next week. I urge the conferees to remove the earmarks in both the House and Senate bills. If all of these earmarks at the President's requested funding level became law, over half of the MRA appropriation would be earmarked and the unrmarked programs, which provide lifesaving support to refugees in camps in Africa, Latin America, the Near East, and Southeast Asia, would have to be cut by 25% across the board to absorb the increase outside the request level. We need to drop the earmarks on both the regular and the emergency refugee accounts.
REFUGEE ASSISTANCE POLICY
About two-thirds of refugee funds help provide the most basic food, shelter, medical care, education or training, and protection for people in camps who have fled human rights abuses, famine, civil war, or invasions. Today the vast majority of the nearly 13 million refugees are found in Asian and African countries. International refugee assistance bolsters these countries' resolve to continue to welcome asylum-seekers. United States has a longstanding tradition of providing diplomatic leadership and substantial financial resources to ensure protection and care and maintenance programs for refugees in camps overseas.
The
As political conditions permit, this assistance enables thousands of refugees to return to their countries of origin. This solution requires political conditions which, unfortunately, are not foreseeable in the near term for the majority of the world's refugees.
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