A new report from two evangelical humanitarian groups found that fewer Christians fleeing persecution have found a safe harbor in the United States in the past half-decade.
Open Doors and World Relief discovered that the number of Christians coming to the U.S. from countries known as hotbeds of Christian persecution dropped 70%, from 32,248 in 2016 to 9,528 in 2022.
Broken down further, Christian refugees from Myanmar dropped from 7,634 in 2016 to 587 in 2022, Iran dropped from 2,086 to 112, Eritrea dropped from 1,639 to 252, and Iraq dropped from 1,524 to 93.
That comes despite Open Doors estimating that around 360 million Christians face "high levels of discrimination and persecution" this year, up a whopping 100 million from the 260 million reported in 2020.
Much of the increase has come in sub-Saharan Africa, where more Christians than ever have joined Open Door's Watch List of 50 nations "where Christians face the most extreme persecution."
"The tragic reality is that many areas of the world simply aren't safe for Christians, and Christians fleeing persecution need a safe haven in the United States," the report stated.
Still, last year's results show some rebounding from 2018 and 2020, when only 11,528 and 5,390 were resettled in the U.S., respectively.
The report attributed much of the decline to policies admitted during the Trump administration to lower the overall refugee count to, eventually, under 10,000 refugees in 2020.
President Joe Biden has since raised the ceiling to 125,000 overall refugees annually. However, the report noted that the U.S. only resettled around 60,000 refugees in 2023.
"As Christians, we believe that all people have the right to religious freedom and that religious minorities of any sort – not just those who share our Christian faith – should be protected," the groups wrote.
Luca Cacciatore ✉
Luca Cacciatore, a Newsmax general assignment writer, is based in Arlington, Virginia, reporting on news and politics.
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