The United States has launched a new program to receive refugees and urged every American to contribute to their care in order to increase their number, which is "very little."

Under this, any American citizen will be able for the first time to sponsor a refugee and bring him to the United States directly without going through an association or non-governmental organizations.

"The reception is the most innovative refugee program in four decades," Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement.

He added that the goal in the first year is to involve 10,000 Americans in the program to host about 5,000 refugees.

Any Americans or any group of five who wish to sponsor a refugee must undergo extensive security background checks and provide evidence of their financial ability to do so.

There are no financial incentives foreseen for these participants, who will have to prove they have $2,275 per refugee for 3 months to buy clothes and other basic necessities.

And President Joe Biden decided that the United States could receive, during each fiscal year starting in October, 125,000 refugees, which is much more than what was allowed by former President Donald Trump.

Slow procedures

But the United States is very far from that. In the first three months of fiscal year 2023, it received only 6,750 refugees who were approved to settle in the country built on immigration, according to State Department figures.

"The difference here is that the program will apply to refugees from different countries of the world and aims to settle them permanently in the United States," said a senior diplomat, who requested anonymity.

Refugee associations and various non-governmental organizations welcomed the initiative, after criticizing over the years the low number of refugees accepted each year and the slowness of administrative procedures.

"The Biden administration should streamline and prioritize the refugee admissions process because, unfortunately, the number of admissions is still very low for this fiscal year," said Krish O'Mara, who runs the Lutheran Association for Immigration and Refugees.

The number of refugees and displaced persons in the world exceeded 100 million in mid-2022, according to the United Nations.

Julieta Valls-Noyes, the State Department's immigration official, on Thursday acknowledged the slow process but said US authorities had already completed 20,000 interviews abroad and "we expect these people to start arriving in the coming months."