Refugees from Syria's civil war are resettling in Atlanta, Marietta, Stone Mountain and now Savannah as the deadly fighting rages on.
Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, 193 Syrians have been relocated to Georgia. All of them were resettled in the Atlanta area until last month, when Lutheran Services of Georgia relocated a young five-member family to Savannah. They fled Syria to Turkey in 2013, lived in a refugee camp, and underwent a security screening process before coming to the U.S.
The Obama administration is now scrambling to resettle at least 10,000 Syrian refugees across the U.S. this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. But only about 3,500 have been relocated to the U.S. during the first eight months of this fiscal year. Atlanta-based humanitarian workers say the federal government has told them to expect a much quicker pace of Syrian refugee resettlements during in the next three months.
“We are confident the administration will meet its commitment to resettle Syrians in the U.S. and we will do our part to ensure they are welcomed and supported in our communities,” said J.D. McCrary, executive director of the International Rescue Committee in Atlanta, a refugee resettlement agency.
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