IOM Pays Slave Labourers Under Swiss Banks Settlement
436 members of certain persecuted groups have received full payment for their claims

GENEVA, 20 September 2002 - In the framework of its Holocaust Victim Assets Programme (HVAP), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has completed its third round of payments and has paid another 136 victims their full compensation of US$ 1,000. All beneficiaries performed slave labour under the National Socialist regime and were persecuted by the Nazis for being Roma, Jehovah's Witness, handicapped or homosexual. With that IOM has now made payments to a total of 436 Slave Labour Class I claimants under the Swiss Banks Settlement. Two more rounds of payments are scheduled by the end of the year.

"The first three rounds of claims were relatively quickly resolved due to close coordination with the German Forced Labour Compensation Programme", the Director of IOM's Compensation Programmes Dirk De Winter explained. "We are now looking forward to also start paying members of the Refugee Class within the next months."

IOM is one of the implementing organizations of the Swiss Banks Settlement, an agreement reached between Holocaust survivors and Swiss banks in 1999 that resulted from litigation before the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The US$ 1.25 billion Settlement Fund serves to compensate for deposits in Swiss banks owned by Holocaust victims that were never returned to them or their heirs, and to pay compensation for former slave labourers and certain other victims of the Nazi regime.

IOM pays compensation to Roma, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, and handicapped persons who were persecuted by the Nazi regime and performed slave labour for German companies (Slave Labour Class I), and to those persons who were either denied entry into Switzerland or admitted but mistreated there as refugees (Refugee Class). IOM also pays compensation to Jewish and non-Jewish victims of Nazi persecution who performed slave labour for certain Swiss companies (Slave Labour Class II). As of the expiration of the filing deadline on 31 December 2001, IOM had received a total of 22,910 claims: 11,960 for Slave Labour Class I, 10,751 for Slave Labour Class II and 199 Refugee Class claims.