Iraqi Refugee Admissions by Month: FY 2005 - FY 2009

"…we expect to admit a minimum of 17,000 Iraqi refugees in the coming fiscal year."

—State Department Senior Coordinator for Iraqi Refugee Issues Amb. James Foley (9/12/08)

Over the past year, the U.S. State Department successfully built up an infrastructure in the region – including inside Iraq – to interview and screen an increasing number of the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees for resettlement. At a press briefing on September 12, 2008, Amb. Foley said, “As a result of this significantly increased processing capacity throughout the region, we will be in a position – we anticipate that barring unforeseen adverse developments in the region, we will be in a position to significantly increase the number of Iraqi refugees admitted to the U.S. for permanent resettlement in fiscal year 2009. Now, we cannot predict what that number ultimately will be, but we expect to admit a minimum of 17,000 Iraqi refugees in the coming fiscal year. So the goal is to maximize our capacity, and that’s what we’re going to aim to do over the next fiscal year."