LOWELL — The 22-year-old Syrian refugee charged with indecent assault and battery on a 13-year-old girl at a city pool is one of 18 Syrians that a local resettlement agency helped find a place to live in May.

Emad Hasso pleaded not guilty Friday to inappropriately touching the girl at the state-run Raymond Lord Memorial Pool in Lowell.

Hasso is part of one of four Syrian families resettled this spring, the only Syrian refugees that the International Institute has resettled from October 2015 through July, according to the institute’s numbers.

Hasso’s family was resettled into 82 Willie St. in the city’s Acre neighborhood. A man who answered the door at that address Monday evening provided a piece of paper indicating that he did not speak English.

Though Hasso’s arrest may raise questions about the vetting process for refugees entering the country, federal officials stress that applicants go through extensive security checks before coming to the United States.

That process begins with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which interviews applicants in their home country on refugee eligibility.

“All available biographic and biometric information is vetted against a broad array of law-enforcement, intelligence community, and other relevant databases to help confirm a refugee applicant’s identity, check for any criminal or other derogatory information, and identify information that could inform lines of questioning during the interview,” a USCIS official said in an email.

USCIS would not comment on Hasso’s specific case, but the Department of Homeland Security can opt to remove a refugee if a criminal conviction renders them removable, according to the official.

Lowell consistently receives a number of international refugees — classified as people who flee persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a social group. Once settled in the U.S., refugees can receive federal rental and food assistance.

Refugee resettlement stirred some concern in the city this spring, when there were rumors of hundreds of Syrians pouring into Lowell.

But in March, the institute had only settled one Syrian family since October 2015.

Now, the institute has helped resettled 75 adults and 71 youth from 11 different countries through its 2016 fiscal year, with the most people coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq.

Thirteen people later moved beyond Lowell, according to the institute.

City Manager Kevin Murphy said he’d like to receive regular numbers from the International Institute on the refugees the agency resettles in the city.

The city does not know when or where refugees come to Lowell, he said, and is only made aware of them in instances like this one.

“I think we’ll reach out to the International Institute to see if they could cooperate with us in the future by letting us know when they relocate individuals to Lowell,” Murphy said.

The International Institute, which offers social services but does not oversee the security screening process, referred questions to the U.S. State Department.

Refugees are subject to state and federal laws, and can be removed from the country if convicted of certain crimes, according to a State Department spokesperson.

Hasso was arrested by environmental police at the pool area. The girl told police Hasso asked her age and twice touched her on the upper thigh. In court, Hasso said through an interpreter he may have accidentally bumped into the girl but did not assault her.

Judge Stacey Fortes set his bail at $25,000 cash after Hasso pleaded not guilty to one count of indecent assault and battery on someone under 16. He was ordered to stay away from the alleged victim and the pool and is due back in court on July 29 for a pretrial conference. He had not posted bail as of Monday night, according to a spokesman for the Middlesex Sheriff’s Department.

Lowell police Capt. Timothy Crowley said Lowell police have a policy of notifying the U.S. consular of the refugee’s home country if a refugee is arrested.

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