International Refugee Organization

Abstract

In the annual report covering the period July 1, 1949 to June 30, 1950, J. Donald Kingsley, the Director-General of IRO, stated that the organization began the year covered in the report with a total caseload of 694,823 refugees and at the end of June 1950 the total caseload had been reduced to 539,579 refugees; the over-all reduction resulted from 4,759 refugees who had been repatriated and the 264,078 refugees who had been resettled. The reductions, however, were offset by 195,950 new registrations, many of which came as a result of the announcement of the cut-off date for new applications for assistance (August 31, 1949). Mr. Kingsley reported that the resettlement program had not progressed as rapidly as had been expected and that final figures had fallen short of the estimated 343,000 because: western Europe which had absorbed large numbers in the past was unable to accept any further large labor resettlement; the volume of visa issuance for the United States had declined; and the anticipated curtailment of the Australian scheme for resettlement had become a reality in the last quarter of the year. The Director-General made a supplementary report on August 30, 1950 in which he stated it was impossible for IRO to complete its work by March 31, 1951 and noted that the amended United States Displaced Persons Act had expanded resettlement opportunities by providing approximately 140,000 openings and admission to 54,000 Volkesdeutsche (persons of Germanic ethnic origin). At the request of the United States Displaced Persons Commission, IRO had undertaken to transport the Volkesdeutsche group to the United States on a reimbursable basis.