US to admit up to 70,000 refugees in 2014

President Barack Obama has determined that up to 70,000 refugees will be admitted to the U.S. during fiscal year 2014. In his memorandum for Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday, Obama said his decision is "justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest; provided that this number shall be understood as including persons admitted -- with Federal refugee resettlement assistance under the Amerasian immigrant admissions program." The memo further states that the admissions "shall be allocated among refugees of special humanitarian concern to the United States" and will be broken down as follows; 15,000 from Africa, 14,000 from East Asia, 1,000 from Europe and Central Asia, 5,000 from the Caribbean and Latin America, 33,000 from Near East and South Asia and 2,000 set for "unallocated reserve. "Upon providing notification to the Judiciary Committees of the Congress, you are hereby authorized to use unallocated admissions in regions where the need for additional admissions arises," according to the memo. It is believed that some or all of the 2,000 admissions in this category may be Syrian refugees, upon recommendation from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR.) Obama also indicated that - if qualified - persons from Cuba, Eurasia, the Baltics and Iraq will be considered refugees for the purpose of admission to the U.S. next year.