Legislation of the Allied Military Government on the Istrian Refugees (1945-1947-1954)

Abstract

The author analyses legislation of the Allied Military Government, which standardized the presence and life of refugees from Istria in the Zone A of the Julian March and/or of Free Territory of Trieste, from June 1945 to November 1954. Practically no impediments were set up by orders of the Allied Military Government regarding the entrance of refugees to the Zone, their legal stay in the Zone as well as the possibility to provide flats. However, the prohibition of registering new persons for permanent residence in the Zone A of Free Territory of Trieste, which was in force almost uninterruptedly from December 1947 up to the Memorandum of Understanding in October 1954 (London) and related prohibition of employment of persons without permanent residence caused difficulties, at least on paper, for refugees to arrange their normal life in the Zone A as well as their fully entitled participation in politics (yet the permanent residence was a precondition for the acquirement of the right to vote). Owing to enormous gaps and incompleteness of the act wording the discretion that was given to the executives as well as the prevailance of pro-Italian element in the administrative machinery of the Allied Military Government the refugees surmounted these almost insurmountable obstacles with a considerable ease.