Aged and Ill European Refugees from China Resettled in Europe

The difficult problem of resettling the elderly and incapacitated amongst the 15,000 refugees of European origin in China is being energetically tackled by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, G.J.van Heuven Goedhart. Following special efforts to place the approximately 800 difficult cases in homes and institutions outside China, ten European countries have, to date, offered hospitality to 318 cases. The first group of 51 refugees was flown from Hong Kong today by chartered plane on 14 January 1954. Of the 51 passengers on the flight, nine left the place in Rome to travel by trin to Belgium where the World Council of Churches has build a home at Amay in the Belgian Ardennes for refugees from China. The trip was financed and arranged by the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration which also arranged for travel from China to final destinations.
This photograph shows the Prince de Croy (second from left), Representative in Belgium of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, with the group of nine elderly refugees in front of the bus which will take them to their new home in the Ardennes. [Exact date unknown]