The Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) in the US Department of State is responsible for helping refugees around the world either through assistance to international and non-governmental organizations or by admitting refugees to the United States. PRM administers and monitors American contributions to international and non-governmental organizations to assist and protect refugees abroad. It oversees admissions of refugees to the US for permanent resettlement in coordination with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. PRM has been criticized for not helping more Iraqis enter the US during the ongoing violence in Iraq, and its onetime leader was accused of being unqualified to run the bureau.
The US State Department established the Bureau of Refugee Programs in 1980 following one of the most controversial refugee periods in American history. As a result of the US war in Vietnam, hundreds of thousands of people from South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia fled their home countries, many in makeshift flotillas that produced dramatic news coverage in the US. Obliged to help these displaced Southeast Asians, the US took in large groups of Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians and settled them in states such as California (San Jose and Orange County), Minnesota and Texas.
The newly established Bureau of Refugees was forced to deal with other episodes of international political instability in the 1980s that caused smaller waves of refugees into the US. Some of the more prominent cases were in Central America as a result of US foreign policy aims in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. The latter involved American support for the Contra rebels in an effort to destabilize the Sandinista government, creating havoc not only in Nicaragua but neighboring countries as well. Globally, the number of refugees increased from roughly eight million in 1980 to nearly 18 million in 1992.
The end of the Cold War ushered in a period of intrastate tensions and conflicts in the former republics of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Ukraine and the former Yugoslavia states of Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina. These political hot spots produced a sharp increase in the number of refugees. In the last decade, there have been dramatic increases in the numbers of “internally displaced persons” (IDPs) - domestic refugees inside countries who never travel across borders. Current estimates place the number of internally displaced persons between 25 and 30 million, which is twice the number of refugees around the world.
Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the federal government retracted immigration and refugee opportunities out of fear of allowing more terrorists to slip into the country. This produced record lows in refugee totals. But since 2005, the number of refugees admitted to the US has rebounded significantly, according to the State Department’s Office of Inspector General (PDF).
Located within the State Department, the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) is responsible for helping refugees around the world either through assistance to international and non-governmental organizations or by admitting refugees to the United States. PRM administers and monitors American contributions to international and non-governmental organizations to assist and protect refugees abroad, and it oversees admissions of refugees to the US for permanent resettlement in coordination with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of Health and Human Services and various state and private voluntary agencies. In FY 2007, 48,281 refugees were admitted to the US.
PRM takes the lead for the State Department in matters related to international population policy, working closely with the Bureau for International Organizations, US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other federal agencies. The bureau works to increase national and international awareness of population issues and integrate these issues into broader economic growth and development strategies. PRM also monitors demographic trends of refugees and integrates them into the policy process. PRM represents the US on the governing bodies of international and multilateral organizations, such as the UN Population Fund and the UN Commission on Population and Development. PRM does not manage population program funds; this is done by USAID. Most US population assistance is provided through the USAID Child Survival and Health Account.
PRM leads the State Department’s efforts to bolster UN agencies and NGOs responding to humanitarian needs of refugees in Iraq. USAID programs support thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) inside Iraq and other at-risk people through activities such as emergency relief supplies and support for mobile medical teams and emergency health. Almost $1 billion in humanitarian assistance for displaced Iraqis in Iraq and neighboring states has been given by the U.S. government since 2003.
The Iraq war has produced one of the fastest-growing refugee crises in the world, with more than one and a half million Iraqis displaced from their homes. But the United States has been slow to take in Iraqi refugees (see Controversies) because of tougher security screenings. Also, as part of its FY 2009 budget request for Migration and Refugee Assistance, PRM excluded funding for Iraq and Afghanistan, telling Congress the Bush administration preferred to “continue to review humanitarian assistance needs” in those regions and request supplemental funding at a later time, if necessary.
Refugee Assistance
PRM financial support for refugees is distributed throughout the world, with the Near East ($290 million) and Africa ($288 million) the largest beneficiaries, according to the bureau’s latest budget report (PDF) to Congress. For example, aid to Africa went to help refugees caught in the political crisis happening in Darfur (Sudan-Chad), Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Zimbabwe. Key countries outside Africa receiving aid are Afghanistan, Burma, Sri Lanka, North Korea, the West Bank/Gaza, Nepal, Colombia, the Balkans and North Caucasus.
According to the Federal Grants Wire, PRM maintains seven geographically-based assistance programs:
Facts, reports and briefings regarding refugee assistance are available on the PRM web site, along with information on how non-governmental organizations can apply for financial support for overseas operations that aid refugees.
The majority of PRM-managed funds (87%) are given to international organizations. The rest goes to NGOs. The primary recipients of PRM’s largess are:
- Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
- International Red Cross
- UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
- International Organization for Migration
- UN Children’s Fund
- UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
- World Food Program
- UN Development Program
- Red Crescent
In FY 2007 PRM distributed refugee assistance funds to 48 NGO’s. The top six recipients were the International Rescue Committee, International Medical Corps, American Refugee Committee, Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE), Catholic Relief Services and the International Catholic Migration Commission.
US Slow to Take Iraqi Refugees
US officials and refugee experts have declared Iraq one of the worst refugee crises in the world. An estimated 1.7 million Iraqis have been displaced and up to 100,000 have fled the country to Jordan, Syria and other nations. But the US has been slow to take in Iraqis, falling short of its promised goals.
During 2006-2007, the US admitted more than 1,600 refugees from Iraq. But that was more than 5,000 short of officials’ original objectives for that time period. The lag prompted US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker to write a memo asking PRM officials to pick up the pace. Then-Assistant Secretary Ellen Sauerbrey blamed the problem on lack of infrastructure in Iraq when the refugee program began in 2006 and on Department of Homeland Security restrictions requiring every Iraqi entering the US to undergo thorough examination and review.
Democrats called for more funding to aid Iraqi refugees and warned the Bush administration of not repeating mistakes during the Vietnam War when Vietnamese and other Southeast Asian allies were left out in the cold.
Bush Goes Around Congress to Appoint PRM Head
Ellen Sauerbrey served almost two years as the assistant secretary in charge of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration - but that was only because President George W. Bush appointed the Christian conservative during a break in Congress. The President made the recess appointment because Congressional Democrats questioned Sauerbrey’s qualifications for the job, calling her another “Michael Brown,” the former head of FEMA who was forced to resign in the wake of the federal government’s poor response during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 who had no background in emergency planning.
Prior to running PRM, Sauerbrey had had no experience managing a refugee program. Instead, she had served as ambassador to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women - where she opposed international programs that supported abortion or contraception. Before that, the longtime Republican had worked as a TV talk show host and twice ran, unsuccessfully, for governor of Maryland.
Democrats Zero In On Another Nominee: Ability to Run Refugee Program Queried
(by Glenn Kessler, Washington Post)
|
Founded: 1980
Annual Budget: $1.2 billion
Employees: 130
|
Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration
|
|
|
Schwartz, Eric
Assistant secretary
|
|
|
With refugee crises unfolding on every inhabited continent, the State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration has its work cut out for it. New Bureau Director Eric P. Schwartz, who was confirmed June 19, 2009, has broad experience with humanitarian and refugee issues, especially as compared to his predecessor, Ellen Sauerbrey, whose experience in such matters was limited.
Born August 9, 1959, in Syosset, New York, Schwartz has been aware of and in sympathy with the problems of refugees and immigrants since his childhood, having grown up listening to the stories of his grandfather, who emigrated from Romania at the turn of the twentieth century. Schwartz earned a B.A. in Political Science from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1979, a law degree from New York University School of Law in 1985, and a Master of Public Affairs degree (with a specialization in International Relations) from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University in 1985. After graduation from SUNY-Binghamton, Schwartz interned for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace along with Jeff Merkley, now a Democratic senator from Oregon. At the end of their term, they decided to backpack and bus through Central America, speaking only Spanish and sitting separately on buses so they could talk to Central Americans.
After earning his graduate degrees, Schwartz served as Washington Director of the human rights organization Asia Watch (now known as Human Rights Watch-Asia). He left that position in 1989 to serve as Staff Consultant to the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, where he remained through 1993. In 1993, Schwartz joined the Clinton Administration as a staff member on the National Security Council, eventually rising to the post of Senior Director and Special Assistant to the President for Multilateral and Humanitarian Affairs. He played a central role in managing administration responses on a range of peacekeeping, humanitarian and refugee issues, including U.S. support for and involvement in the international, UN-mandated deployment in East Timor, the U.S. train and equip program for West African troops in Sierra Leone, the rescue of Kurdish refugees from Northern Iraq, the resettlement of Vietnamese boat people, the safe haven program for Haitian refugees and U.S. relief efforts in Central America and Kosovo.
Although he might have expected to be appointed to a key foreign policy post in a Gore administration, George W. Bush’s election in 2000 forced Schwartz out of the executive branch in 2001. From 2001 through 2003, he held fellowships at the Woodrow Wilson Center, the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Council on Foreign Relations, completing articles and book chapters on peace operations, humanitarian issues, and refugee policy. As a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, he directed the Independent Task Force on Post-Conflict Iraq, working closely with Ambassador Thomas Pickering and James Schlesinger, co-chairs of the Task Force. During this period, he also served as a contributor to the Responsibility to Protect Project of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty.
In 2003, Mr. Schwartz served at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR). In the year following High Commissioner Sérgio Vieira de Mello’s August 2003 assassination in Baghdad, Iraq, Schwartz served as second-ranking official at UNHCHR headquarters, overseeing a variety of planning and budget activities during an exceptionally difficult transition period. Between 2005 and 2007, he served as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Deputy Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery. In that role, he worked under the UN’s Special Envoy, former President Bill Clinton, to promote coordination, accountability to donors and beneficiaries, and best practices in the recovery effort. Also during that period, he served as a lead expert for the Congressionally-mandated Mitchell-Gingrich Task Force on United Nations Reform. In 2007, Schwartz was named Executive Director of the Connect U.S. Fund, a non-profit initiative focused on foreign and international affairs. He has been a Visiting Lecturer of Public and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University for some time.
Schwartz and his wife, Catherine M. Graham, have two daughters, Sarah and Anna . A Democrat, Schwartz has contributed $4,050 to Democratic candidates, including $2,300 in 2007 to Jeff Merkley, $500 to Hillary Clinton in early 2008, $1,000 to Barack Obama in late 2008, and $250 to David Orentlicher, who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination to represent Indiana’s Seventh District in Congress.
|
|
|
Witten, Samuel
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary
|
|
|
Samuel M. Witten has served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration since July 2007. He served as Acting Assistant Secretary of State from December 2007 through July 2009 during a lengthy gap in presidential appointees.
Witten earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland in 1979 and a JD degree from the Columbia University School of Law in 1983. Following law school, he served as a law clerk for a US federal trial judge (1983-1984), as a staff attorney at the State Department (1984-1989), in private practice at the law firm O’Melveny & Myers (1989-1992) and in the international affairs section of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division (1992-1993).
From 1993-1994, he headed the federal government’s Heathrow Arbitration Team and helped settle a longstanding aviation dispute with the United Kingdom. Witten then served as the legal counsel for the State Department’s Counterterrorism Coordinator (1994-96) and as the Assistant Legal Adviser for Law Enforcement and Intelligence (1996-2001). As assistant legal adviser, he supervised the extradition of fugitives to and from the United States and the negotiation of US treaties on international law enforcement cooperation.
From 2001 until 2007, Witten served as State Department Deputy Legal Adviser and supervised the department’s legal work in areas including human rights and refugees, law enforcement matters and international economic issues. In 2005-06, Witten also served as director of the State Department’s Office of War Crimes Issues.
|
|
|
|