Speech #900155938

For a complete breakdown. I refer you to supplement C. The refugee flow continuesI understand more than 1.000 arrived during Septemberand I am convinced that it will continue as long as totalitarian regimes attempt to oppress the minds of men. The principal effort of the United States to assist these refugees is the U.S. refugee programUSRP. It was originally established in 1952 under the name of the U.S. escapee program to help keep open the asylum conditions of Western Europe by assisting in the prompt reestablishment of those who flee communism. It operates primarily through the medium of voluntary agencies which provide supplemental assistance for the initial reception and care and maintenance of refugees and offers help to them in resettling permanently overseas or locally. For calendar year 1967. approximately 10.000 refugees will be helped by this program at an estimated cost of $750.000. A substantial number of these immigrate to the United States. The U.S. effort. however. is supplemental to that of the asylum countries. In my travels I visited both host country and our own facilities to determine how effective each separately and together were for the objectives which we seek. On the day we visited the processing center in Latina near Rome. the camp population was 1.450. Including 134 newcomers who had just arrived from the reception center in Trieste. Among the refugees with whom I spoke in Latina was a Rumanian doctor who explained that he had been severely restricted in pursuing his medical profession and was obliged to undertake undesirable work assignments in various parts of Rumania as directed by the regime. He and his wife had left Rumania by train on July 7. 1967. with permits to visit Yugoslavia. Once in Yugoslavia. they sought their way to the Italian border which they crossed illegally on July 9. They reported immediately to the Italian police and requested political asylum. They proudly announced that their processing for immigration to the United States was well underway and they expected to be departing for their new homeland in the early future. The population of Camp Traiskirchen. near Vienna. at the time of our visit was 1.530. including some 90 new arrivees in the detention sector of the camp who were still being processed for asylum by the Austrian police. While in Traiskirchen.