The migration assistance program of the United Hias Service was 50 percent higher during the first four months of 1962 than in the same period of the previous year, and in 1961 it was 80 percent above expectations, it was reported here today by James P. Rice, executive director of the organization.
The current program of the United Hias Service provides for migration and related services to 44,500 persons at an estimated cost of $2,786,550, Mr. Rice said. “Every sign points to 1962 as another year of distress and challenge, of fear and hope, of danger and life-giving opportunities,” he stressed in his report.
He revealed that more than 50 percent of the 6,700 migrants and refugees from Europe, Egypt, North Africa and Cuba, who will be resettled this year by United Hias Service, are expected to find a haven in the United States. Most of the other migrants and refugees will go to new homes in Latin America, Canada and Australia.
United Hias Service, a beneficiary of the Greater New York United Jewish Appeal, assisted close to 2,150 Cuban Jews to migrate and resettle in 1961, and, at the present rate of assistance, an additional 1,500 Jewish refugees from Cuba will receive migration aid from the agency by the end of 1962, Mr. Rice indicated. In addition to rescue services, the agency’s plans in 1962 call for vital assistance in order to:
1. Serve 10,000 relatives and sponsors of prospective immigrants with skilled premigration aid.
2. Provide preliminary processing and migration counseling, including consultations with government officials, for 17,000 persons who will be part of the agency’s registered caseload in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
3.Translate searches for missing relatives all over the world into happy family reunions for 2,500 persons through location activities directed from agency offices in the U.S. and Israel.
4.Provide 2,100 persons with necessary help to achieve an adjustment of their status in the U.S. and give naturalization assistance in the U.S. to 5,000 persons.
5. Provide resettlement assistance in Latin America to 650 migrants who arrived in prior years and extend special integration loans to 520 newcomers in Israel.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
