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The Jewish Trail of Tears The Evian Conference of ... - Haruth.com

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and Chaldean refugees and by 1924 the documents were accepted by more than fifty<br />

governments. 14<br />

<strong>The</strong> Commission centrale pour l’étude de la condition des réfugiés russes et<br />

arménians attempted to codify the rights <strong>of</strong> these refugees through international<br />

agreements but it was not until 1928 that the “Arrangement on Russian and Armenian<br />

Refugees” was adopted. This document allowed nations to grant non-statutory consent<br />

conceding the refugees the right to work, access to the judicial system and protection<br />

from deportation. 15 <strong>The</strong> 1933 Convention Relating to the International Status <strong>of</strong> Refugees<br />

expanded the terms and scope <strong>of</strong> the 1928 agreement to include social welfare, education,<br />

and labor conditions. 16<br />

<strong>The</strong> Great Depression, with its mass unemployment among native workers,<br />

created domestic hostility towards foreign laborers. Consequently, the host nations<br />

adopted policies <strong>of</strong> restriction, limitation <strong>of</strong> privileges and refoulement. 17 Critically, the<br />

14 “Circular Letter from the League <strong>of</strong> Nations Secretary-General August 14, 1928, Official Journal<br />

(1929): 323. <strong>The</strong> White Russians fleeing the Soviet takeover were granted by the League <strong>of</strong> Nations a<br />

special form <strong>of</strong> papers: the Nansen passport, named after Fridtj<strong>of</strong> Nansen. Nansen was appointed League<br />

High Commissioner for Refugees in 1922. This passport was granted to other stateless refugees and was<br />

recognized by 52 nations. Approximately 450,000 had been granted.<br />

15 James Hathaway, <strong>The</strong> Rights <strong>of</strong> Refugees under International Law (Cambridge: Cambridge<br />

University Press, 2005), 86.<br />

16 Article 3 <strong>of</strong> the Convention pledged each signatory power “not to remove or keep from its territory<br />

by application <strong>of</strong> police measures, such as expulsion or non-admittance at the frontier (refoulement),<br />

refugees who have been authorized to reside there regularly,” unless they represented a threat to “national<br />

security or public order.” Refugees must not be denied entry “at the frontier <strong>of</strong> their countries <strong>of</strong> origin.”<br />

<strong>The</strong> “Contracting Parties” retained the right to utilize necessary “internal measures” for those refugees<br />

“expelled for reasons <strong>of</strong> national security or public order [who] are unable to leave its territory” or lack the<br />

necessary papers or <strong>of</strong>ficial permission to relocate in another country. Nine nations, including the United<br />

Kingdom and France ratified the agreement but Britain disavowed the right to deny entry at the border.<br />

Gilbert Jaeger, “On the History <strong>of</strong> the International Protection <strong>of</strong> Refugees,” International Review <strong>of</strong> the<br />

Red Cross (IRRC) 83, no. 843 (September 2001): 727-736.<br />

17 Hathaway. <strong>The</strong> Rights <strong>of</strong> Refugees, 88.<br />

64

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