Article re "Refugees," with Attachments

REFUGEES. For the first time in living memory the United States became a country of first asylum for refugées in 1960. Some 35,000 Cubans in flight from Castro's revolution in Cuba reached Miami, where they were housed and cared for by the Cuban per- RELIGIOUS 37 manent resident population of 50,000 in Miami and Dade County, Fla. They soon posed problems, how- In spite of tighter controls at border control ever, for local public officials and institutions, par- points, German refugees continued to move from ticularly the schools. Late in December President East to West Germany during 1960 at the rate of Eisenhower appointed a special representative to 15,000 or more monthly. The total number entering study the problem and made $1 million of Federal West Germany in 1960 was expected to exceed funds available for relief to supplement local and 220,000. While they contributed substantially to the Florida State resources. manpower requirements of the developing indus- World Refugee Year which was launched on Dec. tries in West Germany, housing for the refugees 5, 1958, came to a formal end in June 1960. While remained a serious problem. The 250,000 Algerian the situations of many groups of refugees were sub- refugees in Tunisia and Morocco waited for some stantially eased if not resolved during the year, two solution of the political conflict in Algeria. The very concrete results were achieved. The UN High League of Red Cross Societies and the High Com- Commissioner for Refugees received sufficient funds missioner for Refugees combined their efforts to se- to insure the completion of his program for closing cure contributions from governments in cash or in all the refugee camps in Europe by the end of 1961. kind for their support. In a similar manner there was Also, many governments liberalized their criteria for no change in the prospects for resettlement of the the admission of refugees to include refugee fami- 900,000 Palestine refugees in the Middle East. Al- lies with one physically handicapped member whose though the United Nations had extended the man- disabilities had previously made it impossible for date of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency the family to emigrate to a country of final resettle- for Palestinian Refugees which was to expire in ment. For instance, Canada accepted 100 families 1960, many of the governments which had contrib- with one member suffering from tuberculosis. Aus- uted in previous years were growing increasingly tralia, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, the United King- restive because of the lack of progress toward a con- dom, and the United States also accepted handi- structive solution of the problem. The Arab states capped families. There were two interesting results maintained their position that the refugees should be of this latest effort to reduce the numbers of refugees repatriated to Israel which in turn insisted that she remaining in the camps in Europe. The handicapped could not receive them in the interest of her own families on arrival in the overseas countries of im- security. Refugees from Eastern Europe and from migration soon demonstrated an unexpected capac- Yugoslavia continued to enter Austria, Italy, and ity to achieve self-maintenance on their own re- Greece during the year. They became the special sources and thus encouraged governments to accept concern of the U.S. Escapee Program which had additional so-called "hard core" families. Also, at over 20,000 persons under care throughout the year the end of the year, governments were considering and expended a total of $3.5 million on their behalf, keeping the more liberal criteria as a permanent chiefly in securing their resettlement in overseas element in their immigration practices. countries. -GEORGE L. WARREN It was announced in October that 97 countries and territories had participated in World Refugee Year and that 39 national committees in support of the year had been established. More than $80 mil- lion was raised or pledged, $23 million by govern- ments and $57 million by private subscription. These funds were in addition or supplementary to the nor- mal contributions to refugee assistance made annu- ally by the governments and voluntary agencies. The Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration, composed of 29 governments interested in migration, moved over 36,000 refugees from Eu- rope and the Far East in 1960 and brought the cumulative total of such movements in its ten years of operations to approximately 446,000. The joint effort of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration to rescue European refugees from main- land China through Hong Kong were restricted by the apparent reluctance of the mainland authorities to issue exit visas. Most of the refugees were White Russians who have steadfastly resisted pressures to return to the Soviet Union. Slightly more than 1,000 were assisted during the year in transit through Hong Kong to Australia and Brazil, the countries which have most generously received these refugees during the past ten years. The million or more Chi- nese refugees in Hong Kong received more housing, more community centers, health clinics and hospital facilities but many still remained working out an existence in substandard living conditions. Copy