Speech #840136164

I am sure he has it in this Communist redefection campaign. Liberating. the satellite countries can be talked about and debated. but there is not apt to be much spark of hope left in the peoples of the satellite countries once they see those who have escaped to the West coming back again. We must be concerned that the refugees presently waiting in refugee camps do not become so disheartened that they fall easy prey to the Communist campaign and redefect. Our refugee relief program is not just a gesture to be administered in a halfhearted manner until its time has expired at the end of this year. The spirit in which we try to aid these people who have sought asylum in the West will help determine how successful or unsuccessful the Communists are with their redefection campaign. Those who have the responsibility for administering this program must not lose sight of this larger implication of the effects of the refugee relief program. To indicate just how far short the refugee relief program is presently failing of being carried out properly. I wish to read portions of a letter I have recently received. It is from a friend and is a personal letter. As the friend is in a position to state quite clearly just to what extent the program is failing to achieve its goals. I wish to withhold his name to avoid causing him any embarrassment. But I assure the Senate that he is well qualified by experience with the refugee relief program to pass judgment on it. On January 28 he wrote me: Two years have elapsed and still only some 75.000 of the authorized 209.000 have been issued. * * * Well over half of the visas issued have come in Italy where. due to the Graham amendment. thousands of relatives had been waiting for regular quota visa numbers. Of the 45.000 visas originally tagged by Congress for Italian refugees only a little more than 3.000 have been issued to that category and perhaps the total number will not exceed 8.000 by the end of the act. In Greece the picture is pretty much the same except that a large number of relatives also qualified as refugees due to the guerrilla war and earthquakes. Yet less than half of the 11.000 visas issued have been to real Greek refugees. thanks again to the Graham amendment. These are the areas on which the administration will base its contention that the act has been a success. However. this will bear up only in terms of visas issued and not in terms of helping to solve the refugee problem. You see. the refugees did not have contacts.in the United States of America. Assurances for jobs and housing had to come through voluntary agencies and it has taken time and money to build the machinery necessary for this work. Now that these assurances are beginning to come in we find that the refugees have lost out to the relatives. The agencies feel that the answer to this problem is to reallocate some of the unused numbers in Germany and Austria to Italy and Greece. As it now appears only 35.000 (Germany) and 15.000 (Austria) will be used of the 90.000 authorized. To reallocate the 40.000 unused visas and to extend this portion of the act to December 1957. is the agency proposition and I believe that it makes sense. The situation in Germany Is difficult to assess. The easy answer is that the German economy is so good that the people do not wish to migrate * * * as in Italy and Greece. it takes time to get assurances for strangers. Many. many of the recent east zone refugees would like to get to the States but the 2year history requirement of the act prevents them. The security (officers) have set up a reconstruction procedure but it just doesnt work. So as it stands now hundreds of these people will see the act expire before their residence requirement is met. I believe that the agencies have a good point when they support the need for a special quota for escapee cases. Five thousand visas put at the disposal of the United States escapee program people would be a great help. Personally I think that the 10.000 visas authorized under section 4 (a) (3) for NATO countries will be filled and will just about serve the needs but some agencies feel that another 5.000 will completely resolve the old DP problem. (That and a liberalizing of the TB formula which I wrote you about some time ago.) Those agencies Involved in the orphan program feel that the 4.000 visas will be issued although just less than half had been issued up to December 1955. Another 4.000 might be the answer to this very humanitarian aspect of the program. Those were only portions of a letter I received from a friend who is in an excellent position to know how the Refugee Relief Act is operating. Some of the points he raises are crucialsuch as the need to reallocate the unused quotas from Germany and Austria to Italy and Greece which are oversubscribed. As his letter is a few weeks old. I would like to bring the figures of the refugee relief program up to date. As of February 17. the number of visas issued totaled 84.607. However. I wish to point out that the fact that visas have been issued does not mean that the refugee has actually entered and been resettled in the United States as is the purpose of the act. For 32.361 of those who are ready to come do not have assurances. - In all. on February 17. there had been 208.104 applications filed for admission under the Refugee Relief Act. But. if we take the rate at which applications are presently being processed. it is soon seen that Mr. Gerety was right when he estimated that the program would fall 44.000 short of its goal of 209.000 entries by the end of this year. unless something drastic is done to step up the processing.