Syrian asylum-seekers face long waits in backlogged U.S. system

posted on: Jun 15, 2015

Basileus Zeno simply wants an answer. The Syrian academic has been waiting nearly two years to be interviewed by the Department of Homeland Security about his application for asylum, but no word has come.

“They don’t give you any details,” he said, as if “your whole life should be pending.”

Zeno was pursuing his PhD in archaeology in Damascus in 2012 when fighting between President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and ­opposition groups intensified around the Syrian capital. He left to enroll in a master’s program at Ohio University, and as Syria continued to disintegrate, he ­decided that returning home was not an option.

Source: www.washingtonpost.com