DISPLACED PERSONS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 73, Issue 6284, 18 September 1946, Page 10

DISPLACED PERSONS

REFUGEE PROBLEMS DISCUSSED BY TRACY PHILLIPS (Broadcast in the 8.8. C. Overseas Short-wave Service) The United Nations’ Special Committee on Refugees met in London this spring and recommended the creation—from the end of this year, when U.N.R.R.A. is due to close down in Europe—of an International Refugee and Displaced Persons’ Organisation. This organisation would deal with the repatriation, or resettlement in a country other than the country of their birth, of refugees arid displaced persons who are now in Europe and the Far East. The United Nations Organisation makes a difference betweep refugees and displaced persons; it describes a refugee as a person who left his country of origin or of habitual residence because of persecution. A displaced person is described as a United Nations’ national who has been obliged to leave, or was deported from his country, mostly for forced labour abroad. Between the years 1939 and 1945 Germany forcibly removed some millions of people from eastern and south-eastern Europe, and brought them to the west; smaller groups were moved from western to eastern Europe; no records of the exact figures exist; they were destroyed by the Germans. By moving people far away from their homes the Germans wanted to prevent them from escaping back and from joining the resistance movements in their own countries. The great majority of these displaced persons were manual workers who were wanted by the Germans for forced labour. But there were also women and whole families, with children; many of these children became orphans. Men and women were dressed in German uniforms, but not trusted with arms. The bulk of these people came from l eastern and southern Europe; from Poland, the Baltic States, and Yugoslavia. But there were also those moved from west to cast—French, Belgians, Italians, and Dutch.

Wjhen these displaced persons were set free by the Allied troops there was often very little change from the point of view of living quarters: often it meant little more than a change of guard at the gate. Of necessity, it also meant less food. In some places the displaced persons are still kept in the same old German camps, “ many of which,” wrote President Truman, “ are over-crowded and heavily guarded.” But, pending repatriation or re-settlentent of displaced persons, U.N.R.R.A. and the military authorities have undertaken their welfare, and have, where possible, given some employment on the spot. There were about 20,000,000 displaced persons in Europe in May of last year, when fighting ended. Nearly 90 per cent of these have already been repatriated by the western military authorities, and repatriation is still continuing. Most of those who remain are, as I said before, still living in camps and in spite of U.N.R.R.A.’s endeavours to give local employment to as many as possible there are still thousands of these displaced persons mostly manual workers, who have been immobilised this last year in forced inactivity. Many of theni had already spent five years in camps. Others—some thousands of them—are still leading a precarious existence in the mountains and forests where they hid from the Germans, and are still hiding from organised life. At the end of this year, when U.N.R.R.A. ceases to exist in Europe, there will probably be some 800,000 homeless persons in the parts of Germany, Austria, and Italy for which the French, American, and British peoples are responsible. These 800,000 people will have to be looked after, and eventually re-settled in other parts of the western world. U.N.O. is responsible only for Unit-

ed Nations’ nationals who are refugees and displaced persons outside their own countries. U.N.O. is therefore not responsible for some millions of Soviet subjects displaced within the Soviet Union, where the retreating Germans removed 75 per cent of the machinery and destroyed 75 per cent of the towns and villages in their retreat. ,Nor will U.N.O. be responsible for many millions of now homeless German-speaking people, not all of them German nationals, but belonging to the German-speaking minorities settled for centuries in eastern and south-eastern Europe. Neither does U.N.O. deal with the millions of Germans displaced in Germany as a result of the destruction of cities.

In the countries of western Europe, between Denmark and Sicily, the camps for displaced persons are in charge, of U.N.R.R.A. and of the military authorities. In the British, French, and American zones of Germany alone the number of barracks and camps administered by U.N.R.R.A. is over 200. With the exception of displaced persons who were Soviet subjects immediately before the Soviets invaded Poland in 1939, there is no forcible repatriation. U.N.O.’s decision is quite clear on this point. I quote: “No refugees or

displaced persons who , . . after re-1 reiving full knowledge of the facts . . . express valid objections to returning to their countries of origin, shall be compelled to do so.” There are many amongst the displaced persons in Europe who are unwilling to return to their countries of origin. The view of the governments of the countries of origin of these displaced persons—persons reluctant to return—has been stated in the report of the recent Special Committee on Refugees. The view of the governments of the countries of origin is as follows: “The desire of the present governments of the countries of origin, devastated by war and short of labour, is for the return of all their nationals, and these governments are anxious that they should not be called upon to subsidise indirectly the opponents of the present regimes.” The view of most of the governments of the western, or: receiving, countries is stated in the same report. I quote again; “The right of asylum is of a traditional character. It is a nfatter of established international, usage. . , . As a result of the upheaval causer! by the war and the change of regime which has taken place in a certain number of States, there are numerous persons, now, displaced, outside of thees States, who although having in most cases courageously fought against the common enemy, cannot nevertheless accept the new situation existing in their countries of origin.”

The Jewish displaced persons, whatever their nationality or country of origin, form a particular group. Most of them, after ■ the experience of their people in Europe, of whom 6,000,000 are estimated to have been put to death by the Nazis, want to leave Germany for ever. I have spoken about Europe only. But there is also the Far Eastern problem of displaced persons. Forty million Chinese, displaced and homeless within China, are not a responsibility of the present, or of the proposed, United Nations’ Organisation for Relief. Those displaced Chinese for whom U.N.O. is responsible are mainly displaced front Indo-China, Malaya, the Netherlands Indies, and Burma. They number about two millions. There have been, of course, voluntary repatriations, and they are still proceeding. I told you at the beginning that after U.N.R.R.A. ceases to exist a new organisation, the International Refugee and Displaced Persons’ Organisation, will take over. It wilt deal mostly with those refugees who are unable or unwilling to be repatriated. This new organisation will have to undertake their care and protection pending re-settlement.