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Brussels Migration Conference

Volume 495: debated on Wednesday 30 January 1952

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9.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will make a statement on the results of the Brussels Migration Conference; and what relation decisions taken at this conference have to his policy for the future functions of the High Commissioner for Refugees.

The Brussels Migration Conference established a "Provisional Inter-Governmental Committee for the Movement of Migrants from Europe," with the object of transporting 115,000 migrants from Europe in the coming year. The decisions taken by the Brussels Conference do not alter the functions assigned to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or His Majesty's Government's attitude to the High Commissioner.

Is my right hon. Friend aware that, apart from the fact that the High Commissioner for Refugees has neither the money nor the machinery to carry on the good work of I.R.O., the refugee problem has been seriously aggravated for months past by the fact that about 400 new refugees come every week from the Iron Curtain countries to the West, and that they are not subject to international care; and may I appeal particularly to my right hon. Friend to direct his attention to that aspect of the problem?