ABSTRACT
Figure 22.1 UN peacekeeping operations 1948-78 355 Figure 22.2 The Movement of Non-Aligned Countries (1961) 359
The refugee issue: displaced persons
At the end of the Second World War there were tens of millions of people who had been forced to leave their homes as a consequence of the conflict. These displaced persons (DPs) needed help to survive and to return to their country of origin. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (see §19.2) was set up by the Allies in November 1943 and operated under Allied military command. Its mandate was restricted to assisting civilians from Allied states and displaced persons in states liberated by their troops. The UNRRA, with a staff of almost 28,000 taken on specifically for that purpose, provided these displaced persons with temporary emergency aid in the form of shelter, food and transport. It was never a true refugee organization, if only because it had no authority for this, but in the first five months after the war in Europe ended the UNRRA succeeded in helping to repatriate three-quarters of all displaced persons. First of all DPs needed to be distinguished from prisoners of war and then, using whatever means of transport was available, they were returned home. The UNRRA continued its relief and rehabilitation operations until June 1947 (Loescher 2001, 35-36).
