State Department refugee office to assume USAID's disaster aid role: cable

Highlights:

• State Dept refugee office to lead foreign disaster responses
• Office to assume role from USAID
• Experts say refugee office lacks expertise, personnel

The State Department office that handles refugee issues and works to cut illegal migration will lead the US response to overseas disasters, according to excerpts from an internal department cable, a role for which experts say it lacks the knowhow and personnel.

The Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, known as PRM, is assuming that function from the US Agency for International Development, the main US foreign aid agency that the Trump administration has been dismantling, say the excerpts reviewed by Reuters.

USAID's gutting - largely overseen by billionaire Elon Musk as part of US President Donald Trump drive to shrink the federal government - has already led to what many experts called the administration's late and inadequate response to a serious earthquake in Myanmar on March 25.

The excerpts come from a cable known as an ALDAC, which stands for "All Diplomatic and Consular Posts," sent this week to US embassies and other diplomatic posts worldwide.

Reuters could not learn the precise date of the ALDAC.

Under the new arrangement, all US overseas missions should consult with PRM on foreign disaster declarations, said the cable.

"With approval from PRM based on established criteria for international disaster assistance, up to $100,000 can be issued to support the initial response," it continued. "Additional resources may be forthcoming based on established humanitarian need" in consultation with other State Department offices.

The State Department did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed on condition of anonymity the authenticity of the excerpts.

Only 20 experts out of the roughly 525 who did the work at USAID's Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance and its Office of US Foreign Disaster Relief are being hired by PRM, the source said.

But, the source continued, the number is far from adequate and the PRM leadership has "no concept of how to" mount responses to major overseas disasters.

"They do not understand disaster response," said the source.

"It's a joke. It's ridiculous," said Jeremy Konyndyk, a former director of the Office of US Foreign Disaster Relief who serves as president of Refugees International, an advocacy organization. "PRM is not an operational entity. They do important stuff but this is not what they do."

In past years, the US has regularly deployed some of the world's most skilled rescue workers quickly to save lives in response to tsunamis, earthquakes and other disasters.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has rejected criticism of the administration response to the earthquake in Myanmar. He said it was a difficult place to work, the military junta does not like the US and it was unfair that the US has provided most international humanitarian aid.

Konyndyk warned that with the approaching Caribbean hurricane season the US can no longer mobilize the world-leading Disaster Assistance Response Teams (DARTs) it once could to help with serious disasters on this side of the globe.

"The mechanics of how DARTs work cannot be replicated in PRM," Konyndyk said. "They are just trying to create a Potemkin DART."

The Trump administration's dismantlement of USAID has seen thousands of contractors fired, most of the 10,000 staff placed on administrative leave and facing termination, and billions of dollars in life-saving programs for tens of millions of people canceled.

One cable excerpt said that in the event of an overseas disaster, PRM may call on what's left of USAID's Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance to mobilize the remnants of its staff "to provide the most efficient and effective response."