The U.S. won't accept any refugees for nearly three weeks over COVID-19 concerns.
On Tuesday, the United Nations refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration announced a temporary pause in refugee resettlement to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. That led the U.S. to pause its admissions until at least April 6, a State Department spokesperson confirmed to NBC News on Wednesday.
The U.N. and International Organization for Migration — which is in charge of booking refugees' travel — implemented the pause after a number of countries limited travel in and out of their borders over COVID-19 fears. Decision-makers also said they wanted to limit refugees' exposure to the virus. "We notified our implementing partners to expect a refugee arrivals pause from March 19 through April 6," the State Department spokesperson said in an email to NBC News, with admissions expected to resume April 7.
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The EU on Tuesday closed off its external borders, and the U.S. halted travel from Europe earlier this month. Just Wednesday, the U.S. and Canada closed their shared border in a mutual agreement. President Trump hasn't said he'll close the border with Mexico, but he did block asylum seekers from the country even though it has seen relatively few cases of COVID-19; this could be due to a lack of testing. Trump has slashed refugee admission numbers year after year during his presidency and has even reportedly toyed with the idea of ending them altogether.
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