Senior State Dept. refugee official sidelined - sources
Source: Reuters
#POLITICS JANUARY 9, 2018 / 2:38 PM / UPDATED 4 HOURS AGO
Exclusive: Senior State Dept. refugee official sidelined - sources
Yeganeh Torbati, Arshad Mohammed
5 MIN READ
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. official who has been a defender of refugees has been sidelined within the State Department in what some advocates and former officials fear is part of the Trump administrations goal of limiting refugee resettlement in the United States.
Lawrence Bartlett, head of refugee admissions at the State Departments Population, Refugees and Migration bureau, is now on a temporary assignment at another office, a State Department spokeswoman said.
Bartletts future leadership of the refugee office has been in doubt for months. He is now a temporary senior adviser at the State Department office that handles requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Sending a civil servant of his experience and rank to that office is unusual, according to current and former U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A current official described such a re-assignment as a form of internal exile like being sent to Siberia.
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