Speech #900246306

Education. and Welfare Welfare Administration. Washington. D.C. 20201: Total registrations at the Cuban Refugee Programs Miami. Florida Center reached 269.095 persons as of December 15. 1967. The U.S. chartered flights operate twice daily. five days a week between Varadero. Cuba and Miami. Florida. The relativetorelative airlift from its start December 1. 1965. through December 8. 1967. brought 90.413 Cuban refugees. Total arrivals in that period were 97.327. resettlements 75.063. or 77% of arrivals. Almost 4.000 refugees a month arrive in the United States via this means. Established by Presidential directive early in 1961. the Programs mission has been to relieve the burden imposed on MiamiDade County. Florida by the sudden exodus of thousands of destitute Cubans fleeing oppression in their island home. While resettlement is the main objective of the Federal operation. emergency financial assistance is available to eligible refugees in Miami as well as surplus food distribution. medical care. andfor certain airlift arrivals--housing. Federal funds underwrite health and educational activities in MiamiDade County to meet problems created by the large refugee population. As of December 15. 1967. over 63% of total registration (or 169.971 refugees) had been resettled to homes and job opportunities in more than 2.200 communities and in every state of the nation. This vast and continuing resettlement effort is carried out by four national voluntary resettlement agencies with offices at the Cuban Refugee Center in Miami. Department of State Agency for International Development. Voluntary Foreign Aid Service. Washington. D.C. 20523: AID cooperates very closely with the private voluntary agencies engaging in a wide variety of overseas programs. These programs. while not always exclusively limited to refugees. do in fact reach a large portion of the world. AIDs Voluntary Foreign Aid Service serves as the point of contact between the voluntary agencies and AID. In addition to its contractual arrangements. AID encourages. through the Voluntary Foreign Aid Service. informal noncontractual relationships in technical cooperation overseas between voluntary agencies and the AID missions. Office of Refugee and Migration Affairs. Washington. D.C. 20520: The United States has a deep humanitarian concern for refugees throughout the world and since the end of World War II has provided massive amounts of assistance to refugees. Most of United States Government assistance to refugees overseas is administered by or in coordination with the Department of State. Well over two billion dollars of U.S. Government assistance have been provided for refugee programs and current expenditures are at the rate of over $130.000.000 a year. Some programs are operated directly by the Department of State working through contracts in cooperation with American and international voluntary agencies. In addition. the United States supports and contributes to the programs of the United Nations and other international organizations which assist refugees. Several programs are administered directly by the State Department through its Office of Refugee and Migration Affairs. The United States Refugee Program (USRP) operates in Europe and the Near East where. through contracts with voluntary agencies. it assists