Few months go by without news reports of refugees from one conflict or another. One consequence of such reports is ‘refugee fatigue’, an indifference to the plight of refugees as a result of the frequency of such reports. In 1959, World Refugee Year (WRY) was conceived to combat refugee fatigue and encourage action towards a permanent solution to the refugee problems of the time.
Although World War Two had ended fourteen years earlier, by 1959 there were still around 40,000 European displaced persons living in camps and a further 100,000, while not in camps, still needing assistance, particularly in Germany, Austria, Italy and Greece.
Outside Europe there were large numbers of refugees from Iron Curtain countries, Algerian refugees
