The US is to resume refugee admissions from 11 countries after halting admissions from those countries in October last year to conduct a 90-day security review.
Senior administration officials on Monday said that admissions would resume with added security screenings, including more in-depth interviews.
US President Donald Trump temporarily halted refugee admissions from 11 “high-risk” countries in October when he signed an executive order ending his temporary ban on refugee admissions.
Officials would not elaborate on the additional screening measures in a call with reporters, but said many of the changes would be implemented before June.
“We will be rolling out new security measures for applicants from high-risk countries which will seek to prevent the program from being exploited by terrorists, criminals and fraudsters,” US Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen said.
The US has an arduous refugee referral and vetting process, which can take up to two years and involves background checks with several US agencies, plus interviews and medical checks. No refugees admitted to the US have been implicated in a major fatal terrorist attack since the Refugee Act of 1980, an analysis of terrorism and immigration by libertarian think tank the Cato Institute said.
Nevertheless, the president has claimed that refugees from Syria should not be admitted to the US because people fleeing the war there “may be ISIS,” or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as the Islamic State group.
His administration has also slashed the number refugee admissions cap to 45,000 people — the lowest cap on record.
International Rescue Committee data released last week said the US is on track to resettle fewer than half that target this fiscal year.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
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Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia