̽»¨¾«Ñ¡

±·±ð³Ù´Ú±ô¾±³æ’s Transatlantic tells the story of how Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee helped thousands of refugees flee France during World War II. Read how the organisation became the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ and how we’ve continued to support people facing conflict and crisis for the past 90 years. 

Through the years

1933

Varian Fry at his office in Marseilles in the spring of 1941. "I felt obliged to help," he said of his daring rescue operation.

Photo: Varian Fry Institute

American branch of the European-based International Relief Association (IRA) is founded at the suggestion of Albert Einstein to assist Germans suffering under Hitler. Refugees from Mussolini's Italy and Franco's Spain are later assisted.

1940

Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC) formed to support European refugees trapped in Vichy France. Over 2,000 political, cultural, union and academic leaders rescued in 13 months.

1942

IRA and ERC join forces under the name International Relief and Rescue Committee, later shortened to the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡.

Carel Sternberg, former ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ executive director, visits a food distribution center in Berlin in 1945.

Photo: ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡

1945

The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡, at the end of World War II, initiates emergency relief programmes, establishes hospitals and children's centres and starts refugee resettlement efforts in Europe. With the descent of the Iron Curtain in 1946, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ initiates resettlement programme for East European refugees, which continues until the end of the Cold War.

1950

The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ intensifies its aid in Europe with Project Berlin, providing food to the people of West Berlin amid increased Soviet oppression.

Led by Chairman Leo Cherne, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ provided aid to Hungarian refugees after Soviet forces crushed an attempted revolution in the country.

Photo: ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡

1951

Leo Cherne, a board member since 1946, elected ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ Chairman, a position he would hold for 40 years.

1954

In South Vietnam, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ begins a programme to aid 1 million refugees following defeat of the French by the North Vietnamese. The program develops into a vast, long-range relief and resettlement effort for Indochinese refugees: Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians.

1956

The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ starts resettlement and relief programmes for Hungarian refugees after the revolution is crushed by Soviet forces.

1960

The Estevez family was one of many Cuban families resettled in the U.S. by the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ during the 1960s.

Photo: ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡

An ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ resettlement programme begins for Cuban refugees fleeing the Castro dictatorship and for Haitian refugees escaping the Duvalier regime.

1962

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ operations are extended to Africa when 200,000 Angolans flee to Zaire; ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ also begins aid to Chinese fleeing to Hong Kong from the mainland.

1971

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ provides extensive support, especially medical, health, child care and schooling, for the 10 million East Pakistani refugees fleeing to India. The work continues as the refugees return to their new nation of Bangladesh.

Laotian refugees await care outside an ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ medical clinic in Thailand.

Photo: ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ takes a leading role in the resettlement of Asian nationals persecuted and expelled from Uganda by dictator Idi Amin.

1975

Chilean refugees are assisted by the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ in their efforts to win asylum in the U.S.; ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ also helps refugees from Uruguay, Paraguay and Guatemala.

1976

The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ begins emergency relief, medical, educational and self-help programmes for Indochinese refugees fleeing to Thailand, later to include thousands from Burma.

1977

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ President Leo Cherne organises the Citizens Commission on Indochinese Refugees, comprising a cross-section of America's political, cultural and religious leaders. The Commission conducted many trips to Southeast Asia and for years served as the leading advocate of people fleeing from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

An Afghan refugee boy in Pakistan waters a fruit tree.

Photo: ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡

1979

Departure of refugees from the Soviet Union - mostly dissidents, Armenians, Jews reaches a peak of 53,000.  Thousands are resettled by ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡.

1980

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ launches emergency relief programmes for Afghan refugees fleeing to Pakistan, leading to long-term health, education, self-reliance and job training programmes.

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ starts emergency programmes in the Sudan for flood of refugees fleeing Ethiopia. The work extends to Somalia in 1981.

Ethiopian refugee children sit outside a feeding center in Suriya, Sudan in 1982.

Photo: Jon Eklund/̽»¨¾«Ñ¡

1982

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ assists Palestinian and Lebanese refugees uprooted by the war in Lebanon.

1984

In El Salvador, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ initiates a broad range of health, child care and community development projects for displaced victims of civil war.

Spanish Refugee Aid becomes a division of ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡, serving the survivors of the Spanish Civil War in France.

Starting in 1988, thousands of Afghan refugee families prepared to leave Pakistan and return home.

Photo: ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡

1987

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ begins healthcare programme in Poland, in partnership with the Polish trade union movement, Solidarity.

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ responds to refugee flow of Mozambicans to Malawi - soon to exceed 1 million - by initiating relief programmes. Eight years later, ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ assists the returning refugees inside Mozambique.

1988

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ starts community rehabilitation activities in Afghanistan for tens of thousands of Afghan refugees returning home from Pakistan.

1989

Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children established by ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ to serve the rights and interests of 80% of the world's refugees: women and children.

This young girl was among the thousands of Iraqi refugees who were forced to leave their homes and flee for Turkey in the early 1990s.

Photo: A. Hollman/UNHCR

1991

The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ also launches emergency health and healthcare training programmes in Sudan serving some 250,000 displaced people in Bhar El Ghazal and the Upper Nile states.

After the first Gulf War, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ comes to the aid of hundreds of thousands of Kurdish refugees who flee to the mountains of Turkey to escape Saddam Hussein's terror.

1992

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ begins work in the former Yugoslavia dealing initially with the consequences of the ethnic cleansing carried out by the Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ later launches comprehensive community rehabilitation programmes in Bosnia.

1994

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ sets up emergency programmes to aid Rwandan refugees pouring into Tanzania and the former Zaire (Democratic Republic of Congo) as a result of the genocide and ensuing civil war.

1995

The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ began work in the former Yugoslavia in 1992 following the ethnic cleansing carried out by the Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since 1993, we’ve resettled over 20,000 refugees from the Balkans in the U.S.

Photo: Elizabeth Rappaport/̽»¨¾«Ñ¡

The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ moves into Somaliland, providing agriculture extension training and small business credit programmes for refugees returning from camps in Ethiopia.

1996

In Burundi, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ begins emergency aid to displaced people in six of the country's 16 provinces.

1997

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ begins operating inside Kosovo, eventually providing aid to help meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of Kosovar refugees fleeing to Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia.

These Kosovar refugees are among the hundreds of thousands whom the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ aided in Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, and Bosnia in the late 1990s.

Photo: Mark Bartolini/̽»¨¾«Ñ¡

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ opens an office in the United Kingdom to support the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡â€™s global interventions and to add a new voice to the sometimes disquieting debates on refugees and asylum in the UK.

1998

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ healthcare and public health services are established in Congo-Brazzaville.

1999

Emergency operations are launched for the East Timorese following a rampage by Indonesian militia groups that leaves tens of thousands of people homeless.

As the new millennium began, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ continued its work in Afghanistan, aiding millions of returning refugees and internally displaced Afghanis.

Photo: ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡

2000

In Ingushetia, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ launches emergency shelter, sanitation, and education for Chechen refugees fleeing fighting between Russian forces and separatist Chechen rebels.

2002

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ activities broaden inside Afghanistan, with emergency aid programmes to 1 million displaced people, and reconstruction and rehabilitation for more than two million refugees returning from Pakistan and Iran.

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ undertakes an advocacy campaign to reverse the U.S. government's slowdown in refugee resettlement approval following the 11 September 2001 attacks.

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ participates in the demobilisation of 1,200 child soldiers in Sierra Leone.

2003

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ responds to the war in Iraq with water and sanitation, and healthcare support.

Michael Kocher, ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡'s Vice President of International Programs, meets with a group of Iraqi children in 2004.

Photo: ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡

Programmes expand in West Africa, with continued war in Liberia and new fighting in Ivory Coast, and growing populations of refugees and displaced persons in those countries and in Guinea and Sierra Leone. Programmes include health, education, family reunification and gender-based violence prevention.

2004

The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡â€™s Mortality Survey for the Democratic Republic of Congo estimates that 3.9 million people have died in the DRC since the conflict began in 1998, making it the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II.

After a devastating earthquake and tsunami struck Indonesia in December, 2004, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ provided extended aid to the regions most effected, which included economic revitalization programs such as boat-building.

Photo: ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ mobile relief teams, with specialists in health, water and sanitation, and child protection, deliver emergency services and supplies to the province of Aceh, Indonesia - the region closest to the epicenter of the devastating 26 December 2004 earthquake and tsunami.

In Sudan, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ begins providing health, water and sanitation, hygiene awareness, shelter, flood and drought relief, food security and economic revitalisation assistance to nearly 100 communities in the Darfur region.

The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ starts providing essential services to Sudanese refugees in neighboring Chad.

2005

In the wake of a catastrophic earthquake in Pakistan, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ provided aid, including medical care, to 250,000 people.

Photo: Scott Anger ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡

Long-term aid by the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ continues to help tsunami-affected communities in Indonesia by rehabilitating healthcare infrastructure, providing psychosocial support to children and families, and offering community regeneration.

Following a devastating earthquake in Pakistan, ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ emergency teams respond to help 250,000 people and treat thousands of the sick and injured.

Only days after Hurricane Katrina destroyed a swath of the Gulf Coast in August, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ dispatches an emergency team of relief experts to Louisiana. It is our first response to a humanitarian crisis in the United States. 

2006

Working with local groups, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ provided urgent assistance to thousands of people affected by fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Throughout the 21st century, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ has provided aid to millions of Iraqis whose lives have been uprooted by conflict in their country.

Photo: Rachel Unkovic/̽»¨¾«Ñ¡

2007

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ launches a campaign to aid and support over 4 million displaced and uprooted Iraqis.

2008

The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ observes our 75th anniversary.

2009

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ affiliate the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children becomes the . 

2010

Wilio Jean and his son Wilji were reunited by ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ case workers.

Photo: Susana Ferreira/̽»¨¾«Ñ¡

The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ begins providing aid in Haiti after a massive earthquake strikes just outside Port-au-Prince on 12 January 2010.

2011

The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ helps Japanese aid groups provide lifesaving assistance to survivors of a massive earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan on 11 March 2011.

2012

The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ begins assisting Syrians whose lives have been uprooted by a brutal civil war. In 2015, we provided aid to over 1.4 million people inside Syria.

2013

When one of the strongest storms in recorded history slams the Philippines, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ deploys an emergency team to assist the millions affected by Typhoon Haiyan.

2014

A Syrian woman on Lesbos rocks her child to sleep in a transit site for refugees arriving on the Greek island.

Photo: Tara Todras-Whitehill/̽»¨¾«Ñ¡

When West Africa experiences the largest outbreak of the Ebola virus in history, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ is at the forefront of the response to curb its spread, training thousands of local health facilities in Sierra Leone and other countries on how to protect health workers and limit the spread of the disease.

When 60,000 unaccompanied children cross the border into the United States from Central America in the summer of 2014, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ seeks to find out why and to reunite some of them with relatives in America.

2015

The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ establishes an emergency response team on the Greek island of Lesbos to provide aid to the thousands of Syrian refugees arriving from Turkey who are fleeing their country's brutal civil war. The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ soon expands our work to multiple refugee sites on the Greek mainland and in Serbia.

After Nepal's worst earthquake in 80 years, thousands of quake victims receive emergency assistance from the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡â€™s partner organisation, Association for Aid and Relief, Japan (AAR). 

Violence that broke out following a contested presidential election drives 260,000 Burundians to flee the country and leaves tens of thousands internally displaced. The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ provides support to uprooted families inside Burundi and in neighboring countries.

2020

When the deadly coronavirus spread globally, people living in conflict and crisis were hardest hit. The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡â€™s response focused on reaching the most vulnerable communities in over 40 countries worldwide. From continuing to provide health services to refugees to ensuring even the most remote communities were able to access information. The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡â€™s COVID response plan was also shared with other aid organisations that might not have health experts available.  

2021 

The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ launches its first UK programme supporting refugees in Britain. The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ works with refugees, asylum seekers and other vulnerable migrants living in the UK from Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Iraq, Sudan and beyond.

Civilian casualties in Afghanistan reached record levels in the first half of 2021 and the shift in power saw American forces depart the country rapidly in August 2021. The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ began work in Afghanistan in 1988 and now works across 12 provinces providing humanitarian aid. 

2022

As the war in Ukraine saw the fastest growing displacement crisis in Europe since WW2, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ was on the ground in Ukraine and neighbouring countries, working with partners to deliver aid to people in need of support. In just a year, we reached 2.7 million people with crucial in-person support and online information services.