The White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Thursday that President Barack Obama has directed his administration to accept at least 10,000 more Syrian refugees in the next fiscal year.

“The president has directed his team to consider how we can further scale up our response and one thing that the United States can do is to begin to admit more Syrian refugees into the United States,” Earnest told reporters.

“The president has directed his team to scale up that number next year and he's informed his team that he would like them to accept, at least make preparations to accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next fiscal year,” he added.

Earnest said the United States will take in about 1,500 Syrian refugees in FY 2015, which ends at the end of the month.

Source: MENA