She was happy to be given an opportunity to lead a decent life. earning her living in a free country. and soon she won the sympathies of the entire family. and made many friends. In the meantime. the investigating Austrian authorities decided that she was an economic escapee. and ordered her back to Yugoslavia. The eve of the day when she was to be deported. she took leave from the children for whom she had cared for 3 months. wrote a farewell message in SerboCroatian to her kind employers. went out into the cold April night in the land of the Alps. and with a bullet. ended her young life. This bullet. at the same time..also killed an illusion. And not just one. These two cases. so close to our times. and bearing in mind the fact that women were involved. demand and call for a reexamination of the very difficult situation of the Yugoslav refugees who are denied sanctuary by the Austrian and Italian authorities. Official Austrian statistics report that In the course of 1958. 4.852 persons fled from Yugoslavia. Over onehalf of these were forced back under the pretext that they were all economic refugees. Mr. President. this problem should be taken into serious consideration by the international organizations dealing with the refugees. The worlds humanitarian organizations should also get interested. We all recall how the society for the protection of animals lives protested when the Soviets sent their dog into space. Do we value human lives less? Let us hope that the Yugoslav refugees will find better hospitality in the hearts and conscience of public opinion in the free world. Differentiating the escapees into political and economic escapees is a selfinstituted interpretation of the Geneva convention by the Austrian authorities. The brutal treatment. by forcing the return of those who are declared to be "economic" refugees. is utterly condemnable. Governments of the free world can do a great deal toward the solution of this problem by opening their doors to these unfortunate persons. by changing immigration procedures. This would decrease the number of refugees in Austria and. at the same time..would have an effect on the Austrian police and put a stop to the forceful return of refugees. The latent public conscience of the free nations must be awakened. This. not only in the name of democracy. but in the name of anticommunism. in the name of freedom and the right to asylum. and finally. in the name of humanitarianism.
Identified stereotypes
Generalization that Austrian authorities are unfairly labeling Yugoslav refugees as 'economic escapees' to deny them sanctuary.