With fewer refugees, agencies’ futures are uncertain

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) – The future of Kentucky refugee agencies is unclear as fewer-than-normal refugees arrive in the state.

The Bowling Green Daily News reports (http://bit.ly/2sGDXVz) that Kentucky Office for Refugees assistant director Maria Koerner spoke Tuesday at the International Center of Kentucky on the state of refugee resettlement. She says the State Department originally approved 2,431 refugees to resettle in Kentucky for the current fiscal year. As of May, Kentucky has received 1,307 refugees.

Koerner says this means agencies will have to lay off staff, and “infrastructure won’t be there the same way it was before.”

Koerner anticipates that President Donald Trump will authorize 50,000 refugee arrivals nationwide for the next fiscal year. That number is down, she says, from 110,000 that then-President Barack Obama had set for the same year.