President. I wish to call the Senates attention to what has happened with respect to the bill signed by the President on September 11. 1957. Public Law 85216. to extend the use of the remaining visas under the Refugee Relief Act of 1953. I think the program has moved so very slowly as to be almost scandalous in terms of the original intention of the Congress. I shall specify some of the details In order to draw to the problem the attention of the Department. which is handling the matter. and the attention of my colleagues as to the need for speeding up this program. As is always the case in these matters. it is probably the fault of no particular person. However. this is the situation which exists. Out of a total of 18.656 visas to be issued. 14.556 were to be for socalled escapee refugees. those persons. as defined by the law. who had fled the Iron Curtain and could not return because of fear of persecution on account of their political opinions. religion or race. and also those who had escaped from any area of the Middle East and could not return because of fear of persecution because of religion. race. or political opinion. Although we provided a small number of visas for such persons. the least we could have hoped was that people who are located in such jeopardy. those who are living in silent fear for having served the cause of the Free World. ought to get prompt action. From a news story in the New Y6rk Times of Sunday. May 25. 1958. which I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the RECORD as a part of my remarks. up to now only 457 visas had been issued to those of Dutch ethnic extraction. when they were entitled to 1.600 under the statute. 100 visas had been issued to German expellees. when they were entitled to 2.500 visas under this section. As to the other 14.556. about the most one could hope for. from these figures. is that some 1.020 had been approved. The procedures which were initially Initiated. which was true of the Refugee Relief Act of 1953. until a few of us. including myself. got after it. were obsessed with security. The theory was that the screening had to be so fine as to go beyond all other screenings. All kinds of complicated interdepartmental procedures were provided.
Keywords matched
Refugee visas refugees