Refugee transport and the Cold War: the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) and the Hungarian refugees of 1956

ABSTRACT

The Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) played a key role in handling the Hungarian refugee crisis of 1956. It was this body, established in 1951, that organised the registration and transport of some 200,000 Hungarian refugees in Austria and Yugoslavia. This paper examines this international migration organisation in the 1950s based on the archives of the ICEM and the UN Secretariat, as well as on US, British and French foreign policy documents. It focuses on the workings of the ICEM concerning the Hungarian refugee crisis and its influence upon the subsequent history of the organisation.

KEYWORDS:

• Cold War
• migration
• refugee
• international organisations
• 1956 Hungarian revolution

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Gil Loescher, The UNHCR and World Politics: A Perilous Path (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 36–7. For the period from 1944 to 1950, see Jacques Vernant, The Refugee in the Post-War World (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1953); Malcolm Proudfoot, European Refugees, 1939–1952: A Study in Forced Population Movement (London: Faber and Faber, 1957); Gil Loescher and John Allen Scanlan, Calculated Kindness: Refugees and America’s Half-open Door, 1945 to the Present (New York: Free Press-Macmillan, 1986); and Nicholas Bethell, The Last Secret: Forcible Repatriation to Russia, 1944–1947 (London: Andre Deutch, 1974).

² Peter Gatrell, The Making of the Modern Refugee (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 111.

³ Loescher, The UNHCR and World Politics.

⁴ United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Mark Cutts, ed., The State of The World’s Refugees 2000: Fifty Years of Humanitarian Action Mark Cutts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).

⁵ Emmanuel Comte, ‘Waging the Cold War: The Origins and Launch of Western Cooperation to Absorb Migrants from Eastern Europe, 1948–57’, Cold War History 20, no. 4 (2020), 1–2, 16–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14682745.2020.1756781 (accessed 26 August 2020).

⁶ Peter J. Verovšek, ‘Screening Migrants in the Early Cold War: The Geopolitics of U.S. Immigration Policy’, Journal of Cold War Studies 20, no. 4 (2018), 154–79.

⁷ Lina Venturas, ed., International ‘Migration Management’ in the Early Cold War: The Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (Corinth: University of Peloponnese, 2015).

⁸ Loescher and Scanlan, Calculated Kindness, 42.

⁹ Marianne Ducasse-Rogier, The International Organization for Migration, 1951–2001 (Geneva: International Organization for Migration, 2001), 13–14. For the history of the IRO, see Louise W. Holborn, The International Refugee Organization, a Specialised Agency of the United Nations: Its History and Work, 1946–1952 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956).

¹⁰ Mutual Security Act, Public Law 249 of 31 October 1951. Cited by Rieko Karatani, ‘How History Separated Refugee and Migrant Regimes: In Search of Their Institutional Origins’, International Journal of Refugee Law 17, no. 3 (1 January 2005), 536.

¹¹ Jérôme Elie, ‘The Historical Roots of Cooperation between the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organisation for Migration’, Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organisations 16, no. 3 (July 2010): 349–50; and Ducasse-Rogier, The International Organization for Migration, 15–16.

¹² Karatani, ‘How History Separated’, 537; and Elie, ‘The Historical Roots of Cooperation’, 350.

¹³ Venturas, International ‘Migration Management’ in the Early Cold War, 6.

¹⁴ Office memorandum from George L. Warren to McLeod, Conditions of U.S. contribution to ICEM. RG 59 General Records of the Department of State, Records of the Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs, Lot file No. 62-D-146, Decimal Files, 1953–1960, 1953–56, Box 20, 28 June 1955, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington DC (henceforth ‘NARA’).

¹⁵ Dimitris Parsanoglou, ‘Organising an International Migration Machinery: The Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration’, in Venturas, International ‘Migration Management’ in the Early Cold War, 84.

¹⁶ Elie, ‘The Historical Roots of Cooperation’, 350; Ducasse-Rogier, The International Organization for Migration, 18–19; and Parsanoglou, ‘Organising an International Migration Machinery’, 59–60.

¹⁷ Elie, ‘The Historical Roots of Cooperation’, 350; Richard Perruchoud, ‘From the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration to the International Organization for Migration’, International Journal of Refugee Law I, no. 4 (1989), 505.

¹⁸ Jérôme Elie, ‘Interactions et filiations entre organisations internationales autour de la question des réfugiés (1946–1956)’, Relations internationales 152, no. 4 (2012): 48.

¹⁹ Ducasse-Rogier, The International Organization for Migration, 20. See also: Perruchoud, ‘From the Intergovernmental Committee’, 503. On the contemporary attitude of Western public opinion and the international community towards refugees and on the humanitarian and fundamentally liberal approach to the matter, see: Gusztáv D. Kecskés, ‘A Cold War Humanitarian Action: The Western Admission of 1956 Hungarian Refugees’, Hungarian Historical Review, 11, no. 4 (2022), 917–19.

²⁰ Perruchoud, ‘From the Intergovernmental Committee’, 505.

²¹ James L. Carlin, The Refugee Connection: A Lifetime of Running a Lifeline (London: Macmillan Publishers Limited, 1989), 35–6.

²² Parsanoglou, ‘Organising an International Migration Machinery’, 69.

²³ Ibid., 72–4.

²⁴ Ducasse-Rogier, The International Organization for Migration, 21.

²⁵ ICEM Handbook, 1959: 39–45. Cited by Ducasse-Rogier, The International Organization for Migration, 25.

²⁶ ICEM Handbook for 1960. 14. Cited by Ducasse-Rogier, The International Organization for Migration, 27.

²⁷ Ducasse-Rogier, The International Organization for Migration, 28.

²⁸ Parsanoglou, ‘Organising an International Migration Machinery’, 60–1; Ducasse-Rogier, The International Organization for Migration, 29.

²⁹ ICEM Handbook, 1960, 18. Cited by Ducasse-Rogier, The International Organization for Migration, 34.

³⁰ Ducasse-Rogier, The International Organization for Migration, 34–5.

³¹ Le comité intergouvernemental pour les migrations européennes, Population, 1954, vol. 9., no. 1.

³² Elie, ‘The Historical Roots of Cooperation’, 352–3.

³³ Elie, ‘Interactions et filiations’, 48.

³⁴ Elie, ‘The Historical Roots of Cooperation’, 354.

³⁵ Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (henceforth in the footnotes ‘ICEM’), Council, Sixth Session, Report of the director on the work of the Committee for the year 1956, MC/223, 4 March 1957, Library of the International Organization for Migration, Geneva (henceforth ‘LIOM’).

³⁶ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Report of the director on progress since the Fifth Session, MC/225, March 20, 1957, LIOM.

³⁷ Ducasse-Rogier, The International Organization for Migration, 36; Carlin, The Refugee Connection, 41.

³⁸ For the international context of the Polish and Hungarian crises of 1956, see Csaba Békés, Malcolm Byrne, and János M. Rainer, eds., The 1956 Hungarian Revolution: A History in Documents, (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2002); Mark Kramer, ‘The Soviet Union and the 1956 Crises in Hungary and Poland: Reassessments and New Findings’, Journal of Contemporary History 33, no. 2 (April 1998): 163–214; and Csaba Békés, ‘The 1956 Hungarian Revolution and World Politics’ (Working Paper No. 16, Cold War International History Project Working Paper Series, Christian F. Ostermann, ed., Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C, 1996). https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/the-1956-hungarian-revolution-and-world-politics (accessed 31 January 2023).

³⁹ ‘KSH-jelentés az 1956-os disszidálásokról. Az illegálisan külföldre távozott személyek főbb adatai, 1956. október 23–1957. április 30’ [CSO (Central Statistical Office) report on the 1956 fugitives. Main data of persons who went abroad illegally, October 23, 1956–April 30, 1957] Regio 2, no. 4 (1991): 174–211. The amnesty only applied to illegal crossing of the border.

⁴⁰ Note by the Chairman of the Committee of Political Advisers (signed: A. Casardi): Report on Hungarian refugees. This study is based on the statistics published on 11 March 1957 by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, C-M (57) 65, 17 April 1957, NATO Archives, Brussels.

⁴¹ Nations Unies, Comité de l’UNREF, A/AC. 79/73, 8 May 1957.

⁴² Report of the ICEM on the Hungarian Refugee Situation (Austria, 30 December 1957). USA Senate Report, n° 1815, quoted by Julianna Puskás, ‘Elvándorlások Magyarországról 1945 óta és a magyar diaszpóra néhány jellegzetessége az 1970-es években’ [Migrations from Hungary since 1945 and some characteristics of the Hungarian diaspora in the 1970s], in János Molnár, Sándor Orbán, and Károly Urbán, eds., Tanulmányok a magyar népi demokrácia negyven évéről (Budapest: Kossuth, 1985), 249.

⁴³ Borbándi Gyula, A magyar emigráció életrajza, 1945–1985 [Biography of Hungarian emigration, 1945–1985], vol. 1 (Budapest: Európa, 1989), 408–9.

⁴⁴ Loescher, The UNHCR and World Politics, 87, 89. According to the Bureau of Labour Statistics consumer price index, the purchasing power of US$100 in 1956 equates to about US$951 in 2020. https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1956?amount=100 (accessed 15 April 2020).

⁴⁵ For more details see: Kecskés, ‘A Cold War Humanitarian Action’.

⁴⁶ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Report of the director on the work of the Committee for the year 1956, MC/223, 4 March, 1957, LIOM. As early as 26 October 1956, the Austrian government declared that it would provide asylum to all Hungarian refugees, regardless of the reason for leaving their homeland. See: Andreas Gémes, ‘Political Migration in the Cold War: The Case of Austria and the Hungarian Refugees of 1956–57’, in Ann Katherine Isaacs, ed., Immigration/Emigration in Historical Perspective (Pisa: Edizioni Plus and Pisa University Press, 2007), 169.

⁴⁷ Jules Witcover, ‘The Role of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration in the Resettlement of Hungarian Refugees, 1956–57’, R.E.M.P. [Research Group for European Migration Problems] Bulletin 6, no. 1 (January–March 1958) (The Hague: Albani, 1958), 4.

⁴⁸ Ibid.

⁴⁹ Note of J. Segond, Legal Officer, Department of Budget and Administration. SIT-00-049, 6 November 1956, LIOM.

⁵⁰ See, for example, Director Tittmann’s telegram to the French Government: Télégramme du directeur du CIME [Comité intergouvernemental pour les migrations européennes] au Ministère des Affaires étrangères français. Cote: 372QO, série: Nations Unies et organisations internationales (henceforth ‘NUOI’), carton 301, dossier 7, 5 November 1956, Centre des Archives diplomatiques de La Courneuve, La Courneuve, France (henceforth ‘CADL’).

⁵¹ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Report of the director on the work of the Committee for the year 1956, MC/223, 4 March 1957, LIOM.

⁵² Brief Statement of Activities in Connection with Hungarian Refugee Programme, sent by Pierre Jacobsen, Deputy Director of the ICEM to James Read, Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, SIT-00-049, 13 November 1956, LIOM.

⁵³ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Report of the director on the work of the Committee for the year 1956, MC/223, 4 March 1957, LIOM.

⁵⁴ Witcover, ‘The Role of the Intergovernmental Committee’, 4.

⁵⁵ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Report of the director on the work of the Committee for the year 1956, MC/223, 4 March 1957, LIOM.

⁵⁶ Ducasse-Rogier, The International Organization for Migration, 37–8.

⁵⁷ Witcover, ‘The Role of the Intergovernmental Committee’, 6.

⁵⁸ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Report of the director on the work of the Committee for the year 1956, MC/223, 4 March 1957, LIOM.

⁵⁹ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Report on the Sixth (Special) Session of the Executive Committee, 14 January 1957, MC/221, 14 February 1957, LIOM.

⁶⁰ Witcover, ‘The Role of the Intergovernmental Committee’, 5; Roger Walon, ‘Le CIME et l’Évacuation d’Autriche des Réfugiés Hongrois’, Intégration, Bulletin International, AWR/AER, no. 2 (1957): 142; and Carlin, The Refugee Connection, 46.

⁶¹ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Report of the director on the work of the Committee for the year 1956, MC/223, March 4, 1957, LIOM.

⁶² Ibid.

⁶³ The UNHCR coordinated the work of the organisations involved in assisting Hungarian refugees through the Geneva Coordinating Committee.

⁶⁴ Report by the United Nations observer at the special public meeting of the Executive Committee of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (Geneva, 18 January 1957) to discuss Hungarian Refugee Programme, UN-S-445-0199-2, 18 January 1957, United Nations – Archives and Records Management Section, New York (henceforth ‘UNARMS’).

⁶⁵ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Report on the Sixth (Special) Session of the Executive Committee, 14 January 1957, MC/221, 14 February 1957, LIOM.

⁶⁶ For example, the Swiss government had notified the ICEM that, in accordance with its decision of 26 November 1956, another 6000 Hungarian refugees would be admitted on a temporary basis, in excess of the 4000 previously admitted for final admission. Lettre de Max Petipierre, conseiller fédéral, chef du Département politique (Affaires étrangères) à Harold Tittmann, directeur du CIME, c.211.HO.-RH/eo. SIT-00-023, 28 November 1956, LIOM.

⁶⁷ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Report of the director on the work of the Committee for the year 1956, MC/223, 4 March 1957, LIOM.

⁶⁸ Walon, ‘Le CIME et l’Évacuation d’Autriche’, 142.

⁶⁹ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Report on the Sixth (Special) Session of the Executive Committee, 14 January 1957, MC/221, 14 February 1957, LIOM.

⁷⁰ Memorandum regarding ICEM movement of Hungarian refugees from Austria to the United Kingdom 1956/1957. FO 371/127703, 25 January 1957, The National Archives, Kew, United Kingdom (henceforth ‘TNA’).

⁷¹ Aide mémoire handed to the United States Chargé d’Affaire in the United Kingdom, Minister Walworth Barbour on 14 February 1957. FO 371/127703, 13 February 1957, TNA.

⁷² ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Report of the director on progress since the Fifth Session, MC/225, 20 March 1957, LIOM.

⁷³ CIME communiqué de presse, Une session spéciale du Comité exécutif du CIME convoquée pour le 14 janvier 1957, No. 200. Cote: 372QO, série: NUOI, carton 301, dossier 7, 26 December 1956, CADL.

⁷⁴ Télégramme du directeur Tittmann au Ministère des Affaires étrangères, Télégramme du Ministère de l’intérieur d’Autriche, MC/EX/INF/2, restricted. Cote: 372QO, série: NUOI, carton 301, dossier 7, 13 January 1957, CADL.

⁷⁵ Witcover, ‘The Role of the Intergovernmental Committee’, 16. See also: Walon, ‘Le CIME et l’Évacuation d’Autriche’, 146.

⁷⁶ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Report on the Sixth (Special) Session of the Executive Committee, 14 January 1957, MC/221, 14 February 1957, LIOM.

⁷⁷ Ibid.

⁷⁸ Note (signed Falla), Hungarian refugees and Inter-Governmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM), confidential. FO 371/127703, 28 January 1957, TNA.

⁷⁹ Witcover, ‘The Role of the Intergovernmental Committee’, 16. See also: Walon, ‘Le CIME et l’Évacuation d’Autriche’, 146.

⁸⁰ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Report on the Sixth (Special) Session of the Executive Committee, 14 January 1957, MC/221, 14 February 1957, LIOM.

⁸¹ CIME communiqué de presse, Les États-Unis participeront avec 15, 4 millions de dollars au programme du CIME de 1957, No. 208. Cote: 372QO, série: NUOI, carton 301, dossier 7, 1 February 1957, CADL.

⁸² Witcover, ‘The Role of the Intergovernmental Committee’, 17.

⁸³ Walon, ‘Le CIME et l’Évacuation d’Autriche’, 146–7. See also: Carlin, The Refugee Connection, 62.

⁸⁴ Télégramme du directeur Harold H. Tittmann au Ministère des Affaires étrangères, n° 5721. Cote: 372QO, série: NUOI, carton 301, dossier 7, 10 May 1957, CADL. And Letter from Director Harold H. Tittmann to the Secretary of State of the USA. RG 469, Records of the U.S. Foreign Assistance Agencies, 1948–1961, Office of the Director, Subject Files Relating Primarily to Hungarian Refugees, 1956–1961, Loose-Unfiled Papers to Hungarian Refugee Relief ICEM, Box 3, ARC ID 3000028, Entry P 216, 13 May 1957, NARA.

⁸⁵ Brief Statement of Activities in Connection with Hungarian Refugee Programme, sent by Pierre Jacobsen, Deputy Director of the ICEM to James Read, Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees. SIT-00-049, 13 November 1956, LIOM.

⁸⁶ Witcover, ‘The Role of the Intergovernmental Committee’, 18.

⁸⁷ Walon, ‘Le CIME et l’Évacuation d’Autriche’, 141.

⁸⁸ Ibid., 147; Witcover, ‘The Role of the Intergovernmental Committee’, 18.

⁸⁹ ICEM Handbook, 1960, 19. Cited by Ducasse-Rogier, The International Organization for Migration, 39.

⁹⁰ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Report on the Sixth (Special) Session of the Executive Committee, 14 January 1957, MC/221, 14 February 1957, LIOM.

⁹¹ Katarina Kovačević, ‘A menekültkérdés Jugoszláviában’ [The refugee issue in Yugoslavia], János Rainer M. and Katalin Somlai, eds., Évkönyv XIV (2006–2007). Az 1956-os forradalom visszhangja a szovjet tömb országaiban (Budapest: 1956-os Intézet, 2007), 147–8.

⁹² Lettre d’August Lindt, Haut Commissaire des Nations Unies pour les réfugiés à Pierre Jacobsen, Directeur adjoint du CIME. SIT-00-023, 23 January 1957, LIOM.

⁹³ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Revised report of the Director on the situation of Hungarian refugees in Yugoslavia, MC/228/Rev.1, 2 April 1957, LIOM.

⁹⁴ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Addendum 1 to the Preliminary Report of the Executive Committee, MC/232/Add.1, 8 April 1957, LIOM.

⁹⁵ Ibid.

⁹⁶ Witcover, ‘The Role of the Intergovernmental Committee’, 19.

⁹⁷ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Resolution no. 140 (VI), Hungarian refugees in Yugoslavia (Adopted by the Council at its 53rd meeting on 11 April 1957), MC/239, 12 April 1957, LIOM. Furthermore: Witcover, ‘The Role of the Intergovernmental Committee’, 19.

⁹⁸ Edvard B. Marks, chief, ICEM Liaison Mission in Belgrade, Hungarian refugees in Yugoslavia, Resettlement report as of 1 October 1957, to Harold H. Tittmann, Director of the ICEM. SIT-00-023, 1 October 1957, LIOM.

⁹⁹ Instructions to the United States Representative to the Sixth Session of the Council and Seventh Session of the Executive Committee of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration, limited official use. RG 469, Records of the U.S. Foreign Assistance Agencies, 1948–1961, Office of the Director, Subject Files Relating Primarily to Hungarian Refugees, 1956–1961, Hungarian Refugees – General, to FY 1958 Mutual Security Program, Box 5, ARC ID 3000028, Entry P 216, 1957!, NARA.

¹⁰⁰ Memorandum of Understanding on the Movement of Hungarian Refugees from Yugoslavia Between the Office of the UNHCR (Lindt), ICEM (Jacobsen) and the U.S. Delegation to ICEM (McLeod and Warren), Geneva. SIT-00-049, 14–15 April 1957, LIOM.

¹⁰¹ Report of Jean Schiltz, Acting Chief of Office, Belgrade to Harold H. Tittmann, Director of the ICEM. SIT-00-023, 1 May 1957, LIOM.

¹⁰² Memorandum of Meeting with Lindt and Read in the High Commissioner’s Office. SIT-00-049, 15 May 1957, LIOM.

¹⁰³ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Revised report of the director on the situation of Hungarian refugees in Yugoslavia, MC/228/Rev.1, 2 April 1957, LIOM.

¹⁰⁴ Edvard B. Marks, chief, ICEM Liaison Mission in Belgrade, Hungarian refugees in Yugoslavia, Resettlement report as of 1 October 1957, to Harold H. Tittmann, Director of the ICEM. SIT-00-023, 1 October 1957, LIOM.

¹⁰⁵ Witcover, ‘The Role of the Intergovernmental Committee’, 19.

¹⁰⁶ ICEM, Council, Eighth Session, Report of the Director on progress since the Seventh Session of the Council, MC/284, 20 March 1958, LIOM.

¹⁰⁷ ICEM, Eighth Session, Plan of operations and budget and plan of expenditure for 1958: revised estimates, Presented by the Director, MC/290, 10 May 1958, LIOM. These data are also substantially confirmed by Yugoslav Foreign Ministry sources. See: Kovačević, ‘A menekültkérdés Jugoszláviában’, 134–5.

¹⁰⁸ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Report on the Sixth (Special) Session of the Executive Committee, 14 January 1957, MC/221, 14 February 1957, LIOM.

¹⁰⁹ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Report of the director on the work of the Committee for the year 1956, MC/223, 4 March 1957, LIOM.

¹¹⁰ Witcover, ‘The Role of the Intergovernmental Committee’, 11–12.

¹¹¹ Ibid., 7.

¹¹² Ibid., 5.

¹¹³ Ibid., 6–7.

¹¹⁴ Ducasse-Rogier, The International Organization for Migration, 38–9; and Carlin, The Refugee Connection, 46.

¹¹⁵ Witcover, ‘The Role of the Intergovernmental Committee’, 8.

¹¹⁶ Ibid., 9–10.

¹¹⁷ Report submitted by the High Commissioner, The problem of Hungarian refugees in Austria. An assessment of the needs and recommendations for future action, UNREF Executive Committee, Fourth Session, A/AC.79/49, UN-S-445-0199-11, 17 January 1957, UNARMS. The Archives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva contain regular sets of statistical data on each receiving country and correspondence on their compilation.

¹¹⁸ Refugees from Hungary in Austria. Special Statistical Bulletin, restricted, UN-S-445-0198-4, 30 October 1957, UNARMS.

¹¹⁹ Witcover, ‘The Role of the Intergovernmental Committee’, 17–18.

¹²⁰ Dr. Cleve Schou, medical officer, Medical report on the Hungarian emergency operation in Austria, April 1962, LIOM, 55-page detailed report based on contemporaneous records.

¹²¹ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Report on the Sixth (Special) Session of the Executive Committee, 14 January 1957, MC/221, 14 February 1957, LIOM.

¹²² For example, on 6 November 1956, Director Herold H. Tittman gave a brief report in ICEM News about the arrival of Hungarian refugees in Austria and ICEM’s related actions. See: ICEM News, press release, Migration Committee acts to assist Austrian Government in movement of 15,000 Hungarian refugees, No. 193, UN-S-445-0199-2, 6 November 1956, UNARMS.

¹²³ These circulars also reached the UN Secretariat in New York. See, for example: Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration, Savingram, Hungarian Refugee Programme, Report No. 17, UN-S-445-0199-2, 28 February 1957; and Report No. 18, UN-S-445-0199-2, 8 March 1957, UNARMS.

¹²⁴ Witcover, ‘The Role of the Intergovernmental Committee’, 13–14.

¹²⁵ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Report on the Sixth (Special) Session of the Executive Committee, 14 January 1957, MC/221, 14 February 1957, LIOM.

¹²⁶ Witcover, ‘The Role of the Intergovernmental Committee’, 11.

¹²⁷ Walon, ‘Le CIME et l’Évacuation d’Autriche’, 142.

¹²⁸ Ibid., 144.

¹²⁹ Witcover, ‘The Role of the Intergovernmental Committee’, 8–9. ICEM staff praised the patient and confident behaviour of the Hungarians. On the difficult working conditions of ICEM staff, mainly in November-December 1956, see: Dr. Cleve Schou, medical officer, Medical report on the Hungarian emergency operation in Austria, April 1962, LIOM. See also: Carlin, The Refugee Connection, 47, 49.

¹³⁰ Comte, ‘Waging the Cold War’, 18–19.

¹³¹ Witcover, ‘The Role of the Intergovernmental Committee’, 5.

¹³² Papadopoulos and Kourachanis, ‘Overall European Overseas Outflows’, 181.

¹³³ Ibid., 188.

¹³⁴ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Report of the director on the work of the Committee for the year 1956, MC/223, 4 March 1957, LIOM.

¹³⁵ Ibid.

¹³⁶ Ibid.

¹³⁷ ICEM, Statistical report, Report for the year 1957 (Extracted from the Annual Report of the Director to the Eighth Session of the Council of the ICEM – May 1958), 5, LIOM.

¹³⁸ ICEM, Council, Sixth Session, Report of the director on progress since the Fifth Session, MC/225, 20 March 1957, LIOM.

¹³⁹ Ducasse-Rogier, The International Organization for Migration, 40.

¹⁴⁰ Report of the Director [ICEM] on Progress since the Sixth Session, Covering the period from March 1 to 30 June 1957. RG 469, Records of the U.S. Foreign Assistance Agencies, 1948–1961, Office of the Director, Subject Files Relating Primarily to Hungarian Refugees, 1956–1961, Hungarian Refugees – General, to FY 1958 Mutual Security Program, Box 5, ARC ID 3000028, Entry P 216, 31 July 1957, NARA.

¹⁴¹ Ducasse-Rogier, The International Organization for Migration, 185. Reference: MC/223/Rev.1, 1957: para 78. See also: Witcover, ‘The Role of the Intergovernmental Committee’.

¹⁴² Ibid., 32, 40.

¹⁴³ Elie, ‘Interactions et filiations’, 49.

¹⁴⁴ Elie, ‘The Historical Roots of Cooperation’, 354.

¹⁴⁵ Witcover, ‘The Role of the Intergovernmental Committee’, 19.

¹⁴⁶ Elie, ‘The Historical Roots of Cooperation’, 351.

¹⁴⁷ ICEM, Statistical report, Report for the year 1957 (Extracted from the Annual Report of the Director to the Eighth Session of the Council of the ICEM – May 1958), 8, LIOM.

¹⁴⁸ Walon, ‘Le CIME et l’Évacuation d’Autriche’, 146.

¹⁴⁹ Exposé de M. August Lindt, Haut Commissaire des Nations Unies pour les réfugiés à la quarante-sixième séance du Comité exécutif, le 14 janvier 1957, MICEM/8/57. Cote: 372QO, série: NUOI, carton 301, dossier 7, 16 January 1957, CADL.

¹⁵⁰ Elie, ‘Interactions et filiations’, 49.

¹⁵¹ ICEM Handbook, 1960, 14. Cited by Ducasse-Rogier, The International Organization for Migration, 40.

¹⁵² Elie, ‘The Historical Roots of Cooperation’, 354–5.

¹⁵³ For the dilemma of the US government in this regard, see Csaba Bekes, ‘The 1956 Hungarian Revolution and international politics’, in Corrado Scibilia, ed., Storia e Politica (Milan: Fondazione Ugo La Malfa, Edicioni Unicopli, 2016), 23–41 (38–9).