LON+Success+-+Refugees

Refugees

The League of Nations did tremendous work in getting refugees and former prisoners of war back to their home country. It is estimates that in the first few years after the war, about 400,000 prisoners of war were returned to their homes by the League's agencies, and managed to resettle about 500,000 prisoners of war who were marooned in Russia. The League also introduced the Nansen passport, which was the first internationally recognized identity card for stateless refugees.

When the League couldn't stop a war in Turkey in 1923, around 1,400,000 people became refugees, 80% of this number being women and children. The League acted quickly to stamp out cholera, smallpox and dysentery in the camps, and spent 10 million pounds on building farms and homes for the refugees. Money was also invested in seeds, wells and digging tools and by 1926, work was found for 600,000 people. A member of the League called this work "the greatest work of mercy which mankind has taken."