The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a global humanitarian aid, relief, and development nongovernmental organization. It was founded in 1933 as the International Relief Association, at the request of Albert Einstein, and changed its name in 1942 after merging with the similar Emergency Rescue Committee. Today, the IRC provides emergency aid and long-term assistance to refugees and those displaced by war, persecution, or natural disaster in more than 40 countries. In cities across the U.S. and Europe, the IRC helps refugees and displaced individuals resettle and integrate into new communities.
Consisting of first responders, humanitarian relief workers, international development experts, health care providers, and educators, the IRC has assisted millions of people around the world since its founding in 1933. In 2024, the IRC reached 36.5 million people in countries affected by crisis with humanitarian services.
The IRC has received an “A” rating from CharityWatch, a four of four-star rating from Charity Navigator, and meets all 20 of BBB Wise Giving Alliance’s accountability standards.
The current president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is David Miliband (2013–present), who previously served as the British foreign secretary.
History The International Rescue Committee (IRC) was founded as the New York branch of the International Relief Association (which later combined with another relief organization) in 1931, at the suggestion of Albert Einstein. As of 1933, the IRC was initially an organization that helped those who were fleeing Nazi Germany and as need arose it expanded its clientele.
Founding The International Relief Association (IRA) was founded in 1931 in Germany by two left-wing factions, the Communist Party Opposition (KPO) and the Socialist Workers Party (SAP). Its purpose was to aid victims of state oppression and persecution. After the Nazis took power in 1933, the organization moved its headquarters to Paris.Chester, Eric Thomas (1995). Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA. New York: M.E. Sharpe. p. 7.
The KPO consisted of the "right opposition" – communists who had been purged by Stalin in 1929 because of their support for Nikolai Bukharin. Among those purged was Jay Lovestone, the erstwhile head of the American Communist Party. It was Lovestone who formed an American section of the International Relief Association in 1933. Among those who joined him was Albert Einstein. Its purpose was to assist Germans suffering under Adolf Hitler's regime – particularly supporters of the "right opposition". Later, refugees from Mussolini's Italy and Franco's Spain were assisted.
In 1940, European exiles and American liberals close to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, founded the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC) to aid European refugees trapped in Vichy France. ERC founding member Varian Fry arrived in Marseille within a few weeks of the fall of France, where he pulled together a small team that was instrumental in helping many individuals escape Vichy and the Nazis to safety in the U.S. and elsewhere. Over 2,000 political, cultural, union and academic leaders were rescued in just 13 months, ending when Fry was expelled by the Vichy French. Fry also worked closely with British intelligence, helping to establish escape routes for British servicemen. Fry gave British intelligence a map showing the distribution of mines in the Mediterranean which he had received from a refugee.Chester (1995), pp. 11–18.
In 1942, after the US entered the Second World War, IRA and ERC joined forces under the name International Relief and Rescue Committee, which was later shortened to the International Rescue Committee. The organization was financed largely by the National War Fund.
While historian Eric Thomas Chester writes that by the 1950s the IRC had evolved into a global operation functioning as an integral link in the CIA's covert network, becoming deeply involved in the volatile confrontations between the two superpowers, and participating in an array of sensitive clandestine operations,Chester (1995), pp. 17–18. many other historians have taken a less polemical tone about the IRC during this period, arguing that the ‘relationship’, where one existed, was of cooperative collaboration only where goals aligned - as opposed to one of co-optation by any intelligence services.Levenstein, Aaron, ‘Escape to Freedom’, (1983); International Migration Review (1998), Peter Rose, Book Review, pp. 789–790.
Timeline
1940s In the 1940s, IRC fed people during the Soviet blockade of West Berlin. In 1945, at the end of World War II, the IRC initiated emergency relief programs, established hospitals and children's centers, and started refugee resettlement efforts in Europe. With the descent of the Iron Curtain in 1946, the IRC initiated a resettlement program for East European refugees, which continued until the end of the Cold War. In the period immediately following the end of the Second World War, the IRC was one of several organizations aiding refugees from Eastern Europe. These refugees were screened to see if they had valuable information concerning the Soviet bloc countries. A select few were recruited to participate in covert operations being conducted by the intelligence community.Chester, Covert Network, p. 59. In 1949, the IRC took a significant step toward a greater integration into the covert network. The IRC distributed a confidential memorandum that it was prepared to take part in sensitive covert operations at the behest of the U.S. government. Only a select few within the committee would be told of these operations. From this point onward, the IRC would function on a two-pronged basis. There would be programs to assist refugees that would be transparent and, at the same time, there would be parallel operations known to only a few.Chester, Covert Network, pp. 64–65.
1950s In 1950, the IRC intensified its aid in Europe with Project Berlin, which provided food to the people of East Berlin amid increased Soviet oppression. After the war, the committee's European representatives focused on rebuilding the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) as a bulwark against the Communists.
Leo Cherne, an IRC board member since 1946, was elected IRC Chairman in 1951. He would hold the position for 40 years.
Also in the 1950s, the IRC began relief and resettlement programs for refugees displaced by the North Vietnamese defeat of the French and by the Soviet forces’ crushing of the Hungarian revolution. According to historian Eric Thomas Chester, the IRC was instrumental in the establishment of two key Washington lobby groups supporting South Vietnam, the American Friends of Vietnam, and its successor, the Citizens Committee for Peace with Freedom in Vietnam.Chester (1995), p. 145.
1960s In 1960, an IRC resettlement program began for Cuban refugees fleeing the Castro dictatorship and for Haitian refugees escaping the Duvalier regime.
IRC operations were extended to Africa in 1962 when 200,000 Angolans fled to Zaire. Also that year, the IRC began aiding Chinese fleeing to Hong Kong from the mainland.
1970s The IRC was active worldwide, providing support for refugees fleeing conflict and oppression in India, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Guatemala, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Uganda and the Soviet Union, while resettling refugees in the United States.
1980s At the turn of the decade, the IRC launched emergency relief programs for Afghan refugees fleeing to Pakistan. Eight years later, the IRC started community rehabilitation activities in Afghanistan for tens of thousands of returning refugees.
During the 1982 war in Lebanon, the IRC assisted Palestinian and Lebanese refugees.
Spanish Refugee Aid, which served the survivors of the Spanish Civil War in France, became a division of the IRC in 1984. That same year, the IRC initiated health and community development projects in El Salvador for displaced victims of the civil war.
Partnering with the Polish trade union movement Solidarity in 1987, the IRC began a health care program in Poland.
Relief programs to assist Mozambican refugees in Malawi also began in 1987. Eight years later, the IRC was in Mozambique helping with their return.
In 1989, the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children was established by the IRC as an affiliate organization whose purpose is to serve the rights and interests of the 80% of the world's refugees who are women and children. The Women's Commission became the Women's Refugee Commission in 2009.
1990s After the first Gulf War, the IRC came to the aid of hundreds of thousands of Kurdish refugees who fled Saddam Hussein's regime. In 1992, the IRC began work in the former Yugoslavia, first dealing with the consequences of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Herzegovina and later launching community rehabilitation programs in Bosnia.
IRC became headquartered in the Chanin Building in midtown Manhattan in 1994. In the same year, the IRC set up emergency programs in Tanzania and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) to aid refugees fleeing genocide and civil war in Rwanda.
IRC operations began inside Kosovo in 1997 and were expanded in 1999 to meet the needs of Kosovar refugees in Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia. Also in 1997, the IRC opened a UK office.
In 1999, the IRC launched emergency operations in East Timor.
2000s In 2000, the IRC launched emergency shelter, sanitation and education programs for Chechen refugees fleeing fighting between Russian forces and Ichkerian people.
Following the September 11 attacks, the IRC undertook an advocacy campaign to reverse the U.S. government's slowdown in refugee resettlement.“Inhuman Rights Immigration Bill” , Daily News, 16 March 2006.
The IRC conducted operations across Iraq from April 2003 through December 2004. The organization resumed operations there in 2007 and launched expanded programs throughout the country. In addition to aiding displaced Iraqis within the country, the IRC also provided assistance to Iraqi refugees in Jordan and Syria, as well as to those granted refuge in the United States."Special Report: Iraqi Refugees" , IRC. Retrieved 18 March 2010.
In 2003, IRC programs in West Africa expanded to serve the growing populations of refugees and displaced persons uprooted by civil conflict.
In 2005, around two decades after Burmese refugees first began crossing into Thailand, poverty and violent conflict in Myanmar's ethnic minority areas continue to drive people into camps along the border. Since its opening in 2005, by 2012 the Resettlement Support Center (formerly known as the Overseas Processing Entity) in the Thai capital Bangkok had helped 90,000 people seek admission to the United States as refugees. The Resettlement Support Center primarily assists refugees in Thailand but also assists asylum seekers in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and other countries in Southeast Asia. The activities of the center are funded by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.
The IRC worked closely with local aid organizations to respond to various disasters, including in Pakistan after the 2005 earthquake;“On the Ground: South Asia Quake – Six Days Later”, Reuters Alertnet, 13 October 2005 and in Indonesia after the South Asian tsunami; and in Myanmar after the 2008 cyclone.
In 2008, the IRC released the fifth in a series of surveys demonstrating the excess loss of life in the Democratic Republic of Congo caused by the nation's long-running civil war. The fifth survey put the excess-death toll between August 1998 and April 2007 at 5.4 million.
The IRC affiliate Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children became the Women's Refugee Commission in 2009.
2010s