U.S. Agrees to Accept 5,000 Bosnian Refugees, German Official Says

The United States is ready to take in 5,000 Bosnian refugees whose right to stay in Germany has expired and who cannot return home because of fears for their safety, the German Interior Ministry said Friday.

Kurt Schelter, a state secretary in the ministry, received assurances that the United States will take in the refugees, some of whom would be reunited with their families there, during talks at the U.S. State Department on Wednesday.

The total may be boosted by 2,000 this year, depending on the efforts of German aid organizations, and the ministry said the resettlement program may be continued next year.

“This is burden-sharing in practice in a very important and current area of refugee policies,” Schelter said.

Germany took in more than 320,000 Bosnian refugees fleeing war in the former Yugoslav republics--more than all the other European Union nations combined--but moves to compel the Bosnians to return home have attracted widespread criticism.

German Foreign Affairs Minister Klaus Kinkel, who visited Bosnia-Herzegovina on Thursday to assess the resettlement of refugees, has slammed Germany’s 16 states for their decision last year to start deporting 70,000 to 90,000 refugees.

The states said they could no longer afford to support the Bosnians.

Schelter said Germany would set up talks between the U.S. State Department and the relevant German aid organizations and would also invite representatives from Canada and Australia who wanted to set up similar resettlement programs.

Schelter assured refugees who could prove they had at least a reasonable chance of being able to settle in the United States that they would not be sent back to Bosnia.