Speech #870142577

But his work did not stop there. Twin catastrophies struck at Russiarevolution and drought. Hundreds of thousands of refugees fled from the Red terror into surrounding countries. Dr. Nansen was confronted with the thorny problem that many of the refugees did not have passports. Consequently. they could not leave the countries in which they sought refuge. Nansen showed his ingenuity by getting the governments involved to permit him to issue these hapless refugees papers on behalf of the League of Nations. which enabled them to travel outside their country of asylum. Thus. the famous Nansen passport was born. At first only a few countries recognized the Nansen passport but eventually 50 countries accepted it.