Provisional summary record of the one hundred and forty first meeting

Abstract

Although the problem of refugees was not confined, to the African con-tinent it was most acute there, vriiere thora-werq about: 850,000 refugees. The mandate of' the Office expressly stated that its work should be entirely humanitarian and social and non—political. Its main function was to provide international protection for refugees and'to seek permanent: solutions to their problems by facilitating their voluntary repatriation or their assimilation within new national communities through local integration or re-settlement, in another country. The aim of international protection was to safeguard their legitimate fights and interests and encourage Governments to put them as much as possible on a par with their own nationals.