REFUGEES FROM EAST EUROPE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27097, 21 July 1953, Page 3

REFUGEES FROM EAST EUROPE

U.S. PROGRAMME OF ASSISTANCE

GIFTS OF CLOTHING AND OTHER AID (From a Reuter Correspondent) BONN. More than 2600 refugees from Communist regimes in Eastern Europe have been helped to resettle in the West under an “escape programme'’ started a year ago by the United States Government. Ten thousand more, now in West Germany, the Western zones of Austria, Italy, Greece, Turkey and other places of asylum, have started to benefit from it, according to United States High Commission officials here. Help irom the “escape programme” begins the moment the refugees set foot in a non-Communist country after evading road blocks, minefields, shoot-on-sight patrols, and bloodhounds. Most of these refugees arrive emptyhanded, hungry, and poorly clothed. Often, they are also sick or wounded. The first gift is a “welcome kit” containing toilet articles and other small necessaries to give comfort and restore self-respect. The programme also supplements shelter, medical and dental assistance, and food provided bv the country in which tne refugee has arrived.

The governments of countries bordering on the “Iron Curtain,” often burdened with over-pupulation themselves and beset with difficulties in handling refugees, are striving to provide the refugees with adequate shelter, food and clothing. Nevertheless, most are unable to do everything. The United States Government therefore helps through numerous world-wide welfare organisations. Vocational Training The programme, the officials explained, provides supplementary care while a refugee stays in the first country of asylum, through vocational and language training, medical and dental assistance. It assists the refugees to emigrate for resettlement, and supplies free transport to their new homes. In Greece, for example, all refugees at the Greek Government camp at Lavrion were equipped with new shoes. In Austria, the basic rations provided by the Government were augmented by the programme, and in West Germany refugees at the Valka camp, near Nuremberg, were sent to a German department store to choose clothing for themselves and their families.

In Italy, where the programme works in collaboration with the United States National Catholic Welfare Conference (N.C.W.C.), many- refugees were given medical care, and in Turkey they got mattresses and blankets through the Refugee Service Committee. In addition to these organisations, the “escape programme” also works through the world Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, and the American Joint Distribution Committee, a Jewish welfare agency.

In *l\irkey alone, where the “escape programme is comparatively small, it has contracted to spend more than 39,000 dollars (more than £13,000) to provide refugees with adequate care. Programme officials have realised that refugees need more than a gift of goods and clothes to set them up again. Thus, they are sent to language schools where they can learn English. Portuguese, Spanish or other languages used in countries where they may want to resettle. In Germany, at the Ingolstadt and Foehrenwald camps, they are also taught crafts such as metal and leather work, shoe repairing, and other skilled work. Aid in Emigration

The “escape programme”-also gives them special medical treatment to help to overcome the effects of malnutrition and meet the physical standards required by resettlement countries. Experienced social workers help the refugees to determine where they should settle. They prepare dossiers and social histories for them to present to the missions and consulates of resettlement States, so that the skill, education and experience of the refugees may be presented in the most favourable light and help in their selection as immigrants. The refugees are interviewed and their wishes, hopes, and ambitions carefully examined to discover the best possible solution for each particular case. Officials of the “escape programme’’ in Germany say that experience has shown this type of service to be more important in raising the refugees’ morale than any other. It makes them feel welcome in the Western world.