White House: US Will Accept 10,000 More Refugees

The United States will start accepting more refugees from the Syrian crisis.

The White House says President Barack Obama wants to let 10,000 of them into the United States in the upcoming budget year.

To date, the United States has accepted only about 1,500 Syrians since civil war broke out more than four years ago.

But hundreds of thousands of them are now flooding into Europe as they lose hope of ever returning to their war torn country.

So far, the U.S. effort has focused mainly on providing $4 billion to relief agencies helping with the humanitarian crisis in Europe.

"The United States will continue to use our influence to encourage other countries, both in the region and around the world, even people who are not - even countries who are not traditional donors to those kinds of efforts to ramp up their participation," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.