United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, Records
This page features several examples of items found in the collection. To see larger images, please click on the small ones below.
For a preliminary version of finding aid including folder inventory, click here.
A letter from John P. Richardson, Executive Director of the American Near East Refugee Aid to R. Norris Wilson, Executive Vice President of the United States Committee for Refugees, March 25, 1970, demonstrates the complexity of the refugee-related issues, including the attempts (seemingly ever-present in the field) to define and classify different refugee situations. (USCR Records, Box 4, Folder "ANERA")
In the late 1970's and throughout the 1980's, Afghanistan and Iraq became two additional countries in the region generating substantial numbers of refugees. Several documents from the USCR collection suggest that the need to address the situation by providing humanitarian aid and attempting to develop the countries' infrastructre goes back to that time.
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| Letter from American Council for Voluntary Intrenational Action to Joint Committe for Refugee Services Abroad of July 5, 1988, detailing the efforts of the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan's Agricultural Survey. (USCR Records, Box 16, Folder "Afghan Repatriation") | Cover letter for report on repatriation of Afghan refugees issued by the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Affairs, May 14, 1988. (USCR Records, Box 16, Folder "Senate Staff Report") |
The situation became even more complicated in the early 1990's, especially after Iraq's occupation of Kuwait followed by the engagement of the U.S. troops. Again, several entities around the world made efforts to alleviate the intensifying refugee crisis.
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| Returned envelope addressed to Saddam Hussein from the USCR, October 18, 1990 (USCR Records, Box 27, FOlder "Iraq") | Letter from USCR to Iraqi Ambassador, November 13, 1990 (USCR Records, Box 27, Folder "Iraq") | Letter from USCR to Saddam Hussein, October 18, 1990 (USCR Records, Box 27, Folder "Iraq") |
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| Letter from Bob DeVecchi of the International Rescue Committee to Bill Frelick of the USCR, March 21, 1991 (USCR Records, Box 14, Folder "Palestinians/Iraqis" | Title page of and map from United Nations Security Council Resolution No. 688 (1991), April 5, 1991, regarding the refugee situation in the region. (USCR Records, Box 63, Folder "Iraqi Trip 1991") | |
15 years later, answer to question 1 from the questionnaire below still cannot be as easy as "None" or at least in the thousands rather than millions.
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| Letter from Bill Frelick of the USCR to the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington DC of Ocotber 27, 1989. (USCR Records, Box 23, Folder "Pakistan") |
For more information about the sources contained in the United States Committee for Refuggees Records held by the Immigration History Research Center, please consult the preliminary finding aid at the following link.
