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IOM is ready to make payments as soon as legal peace is established
Recent US Court decision may further delay compensation
Geneva, 9 March 2001 – The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is ready to make payments to former slave or forced labourers as soon as the German parliament proclaims that legal peace for German enterprises has been established. But, Dirk de Winter, the Director of IOM’s German Forced Labour Programme cautions, "the decision by US Federal Judge Kram not to dismiss the still pending class-action lawsuit against German banks could further block us from making any payments to the already aged Holocaust victims."
On 7 March, Federal Judge Shirley Wohl Kram in New York refused to dismiss the class-action suit that is standing in the way of the establishment of adequate legal security for German enterprises as required by the German Foundation Act. Judge Kram has stressed that it was unjust to dismiss the lawsuit without an assurance that the German Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future" would be fully funded. While the German Government has already transferred it’s share of the 5 billion Deutsche Mark to the Foundation, German industry has so far only contributed part of the 5 billion Deutsche Mark it agreed to make available. The Foundation was set up jointly by the German Government and the German industry as the exclusive forum for the resolution of any Nazi-related labour and property claims against German entities.
As one of the Foundation’s partner organizations, IOM has already compiled a database with names and addresses of 144,101 eligible claimants. These claimants are non-Jewish victims who do not live in the Czech Republic, Poland, the Russian Federation or a country that was a republic of the former Soviet Union. Over 16,500 claims for slave labour, forced labour, personal injury or death of a child have already been filed with the Organization. Instead of the initially expected 75,000 claimants from the so-called "rest of the world", IOM now anticipates to receive up to 200,000 claimants.
For additional information, please contact:
Marie-Agnes Heine, Public Information Officer, IOM/German Forced Labour Programme,
17, route des Morillons - P.O. Box 7, Tel: +41-22-7179220, Fax: +41-22-7986150
E-mail:mheine@iom.int, Internet: www.compensation-for-forced-labour.org
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