US President Joe Biden has announced that 125,000 refugees will be allowed into the country during the 2023 US fiscal year, the same cap as this year.

Refugee and migrant advocates have welcomed the announcement of the figure, hailing it as a welcome change from the previous Trump administration’s approach.

The current cap of 125,000 refugees a year amounts to more than 100,000 more places former President Donald Trump would allow. The Trump administration allowed 15,000 refugees per year.

But there are concerns that the US’ capacity to settle refugees was swept away by the previous administration which decreased refugee funding and staff.

“What came to my mind next was is the infrastructure there to bring in 125,000 and that’s where it’s debatable and that’s where my concern is as of now?” said advocate Albert Mbanfu.

Last year despite the 125,000 refugee cap, the US managed to take in less than 50,000.

“To me I look at it as an inspirational number, to reach that number we’ll have to perform some miracle some way,” Mr Mbanfu said.

New Deputy Assistant State Department Secretary Sarah Cross said in an interview with US media that in fiscal year 2022, which ended on September 30, the U.S. received approximately 25,400 refugees under the refugee Admission Program, which resettles the most vulnerable immigrants displaced by war and violence across the globe.

While the annual refugee ceiling is an aspirational target that does not require the US to receive a minimum number of refugees, the Biden administration’s move to dramatically increase the cap symbolises a major departure from former President Donald Trump’s decision to slash the refugee intake.

But during the two fiscal years since President Joe Biden took office, the US has failed to come close to reaching the refugee ceiling, leaving tens of thousands of spots unused.

In 2021, when President Biden allocated 62,500 refugee spots, the US resettled just 11,411 refugees, the lowest tally in the refugee program’s history.

“We are going to do everything in our power to welcome as many refugees as we can this year, recognizing that 125,000 remains a very ambitious target and it will take some time to get there,” Ms Cross said.

“But we are very optimistic that we’re going to reach much higher levels than this year.”

Over the past year, Cross said, the Biden administration has deployed roughly 600 additional personnel at US refugee process centres overseas; increased the number of local domestic resettlement offices from 199 to 270; and taken steps to expedite the processing of refugees.

Among the reasons behind the US’ low refugee intake in recent years was the decimation of the resettlement program under President Trump, whose policies led the NGOs which support refugees settle into American communities to close local offices and lay off staff.

Under Trump, who argued that refugees posed a national security, economic and cultural threat to the country, the US set record low refugee caps; severely limited who qualified for resettlement; and, attempted to allow individual states to veto the placement of refugees in their communities.

The COVID-19 public health emergency also hindered US refugee processing, leading to a months-long suspension of the program in 2020 and a more than one-year pause in in-person interviews of refugee applicants that was only lifted by the Biden administration in the northern summer of 2021.

However, the refugee admission figures do include thousands migrants received by the US on humanitarian grounds under the Biden administration.

These include the hundreds of thousands of migrants who US border officials have allowed to seek asylum – a path available only to those already on American soil.

The figures also do not include the nearly 90,000 Afghan evacuees and 62,000 displaced Ukrainians who the Biden administration has allowed to enter the US over the past year on temporary humanitarian visas.

The reduction of the US refugee program over the past five years, during which admissions have fallen below the 50,000 21st century average, came as the number of people displaced globally by war, violence and human rights abuses exceeded 100 million, the highest number in history.