Refugees

I didn’t choose to flee my country—I was forced to.

Imagine going to bed each night with the fear that your village might be burned before morning. That fear was my reality growing up in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where I was born and raised until I was eighteen. By 2007, violence and persecution had become the norm. Armed groups, political instability, and deep-rooted ethnic tensions fueled widespread atrocities. Torture, displacement, and fear were no longer isolated. They reached every part of society, leaving communities like mine with no safe place to turn. 

FCNL welcomes the reintroduction of the American Dream and Promise Act.

FCNL today called on President Joe Biden to rescind his executive order restricting access of asylum seekers to the country.

Accepting refugees professionally and compassionately is part of America’s history.

The NO BAN Act sends a message to the country that discriminatory travel bans are unacceptable—and would prevent future presidents from committing similar abuses of power in the future.

Washington, DC – The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) criticized the recent presidential recommendation of the number of refugees allowed to resettle in the United States for fiscal year 2021. The new number, 15,000 refugees, is nearly 20% lower than FY2020 while the number of refugees worldwide continues to grow rapidly.

The current administration has cut refugee admissions by more than 80%, from the historic norm of 95,000 to just 18,000 admissions in FY 2020. This is the lowest level in the last three decades. Our nation can and must safely resettle more refugees and reunite more refugee families.

On January 27, 2017, President Trump announced the first iteration of the Muslim Ban. Since then, advocates, immigrants, and allies have stood together and raised their voices against these discriminatory policies. Looking back over this year of resistance, where are we now?