From the Center for the Victims of Torture (http://www.cvt.org/):
President Trump has released his Fiscal Year 2018 Budget Request, which if passed by Congress would significantly reduce U.S. assistance to refugees and torture survivors around the world.
In the face of the worst global refugee crisis in history, President Trump proposes that the U.S. take steps that would betray longstanding U.S. leadership on refugee protection and human rights. By recommending funding levels that would cut hundreds of millions of dollars from U.S. State Department and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services programs designed to provide lifesaving assistance to refugees, President Trump’s budget proposes to turn America’s back on the world’s most vulnerable people.
In addition to slashing refugee assistance, the President’s budget proposal would eliminate U.S. contributions to the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, a unique humanitarian tool that provides assistance to torture survivors and their families worldwide. The United States has long been a leader in contributing to the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture recognizing that it is in the United States’ national security and economic interest to invest in programs that promote stability, respect for the rule of law and good governance.
Without U.S. support for the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, dozens of programs in some of the poorest regions of the world could lose their primary or only source of support, and thousands of torture survivors would be left without the lifesaving assistance they so urgently need.
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