The annual rise of joblessness in France in the winter, and the Algerian decree nationalizing property there abandoned by fleeing Europeans, has considerably worsened the already difficult situation for the estimated 100,000 Algerian Jewish refugees in France, it was reported here today.
The Fonds Social Juif Unifie, the major French Jewish welfare agency, in reporting the development, said it was conducting a survey among the refugees to determine the exact number of welfare cases. It was indicated that the number of such cases may run into the thousands.
The agency reported that the number of welfare cases already reported, as well as the number of jobless and inadequately housed refugees, had risen considerably in recent months, and would continue to increase during the coming winter. The annual rise in unemployment has hit hard at refugees whose small savings or government grants have been exhausted, and who are unable to find work or other means of support. Refugees who had hoped to sell or rent businesses or homes in Algeria have found that possibility blocked by the Algerian decree.
The FSJU has accelerated a fund-raising campaign to provide some of the families in most serious difficulties with the immediate necessities of life. The refugees as yet have not been able to develop an association that could act to defend their rights before the appropriate French authorities despite a number of efforts to do so. The only existing group of that kind is one of Jews from the Oran district.
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