BERLIN — The U.S. is offering new details about its plan to ease the Syrian refugee crisis by significantly increasing the number of worldwide refugees it will take in over the next two years.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says the U.S. will accept 85,000 refugees from around the world next year, up from 70,000, and the number will rise to 100,000 in 2017.
Aides to Kerry say that many, though not all, of the additional refugees would be Syrian.
The migrants would be referred by the United Nations, screened by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and resettled around America.
Kerry made the announcement Sunday during a visit to Berlin after meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to discuss the mass migration of Syrians fleeing their civil war.