Fifteen U.S. Senators, including Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, recently sent a letter to President Obama urging him to extend for two years Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) for Liberians residing legally in the United States. The current eighteen-month DED extension is set to expire on September 30, 2014.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today released a report on the number of asylum claims in 44 industrialized countries.

Last November, the United Nations refugee agency and the governments of Somalia and Kenya signed an agreement to support the voluntary return of Somali refugees. According to the UN, Kenya hosts 470,000 Somali refugees, the majority of whom live in the Dadaab refugee complex.

Please join us on Tuesday, March 4 in Washington, DC for a briefing on responding to the Syrian humanitarian and refugee crises. A panel of experts from CVT, the National Consortium of Torture Treatment Programs, the International Rescue Committee, and the Refugee Council USA will provide information on the current status of the crises and offer recommendations for actions the United States can take to alleviate the suffering of Syrians living inside the country and those living as refugees in the region.