In the first years of exile, Latvian displaced persons still believed that they would soon return to Latvia. They believed that the Western democracies would bring about the end of the Soviet occupation regime in Latvia as soon as possible and that life abroad would not last long. However, the prospects for the fulfilment of these hopes receded and faded away. The question of further emigration arose. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) could not help in this regard, as its main tasks were care and repatriation, not the creation of opportunities for emigration. In July 1947, the IRO took over care of the camps from the defunct UNRRA. The purpose of its operation was not to promote repatriation, but to place DPs on a permanent basis outside Germany, mainly providing for the resettlement of displaced persons in allied countries. But as the Allies’ capacity to accept more refugees was limited, the IRO soon began negotiations with Canada, Australia and South American countries as well. With the exception of Latvians in Sweden, other exile communities were mainly formed from Latvians concentrated in German DP camps, who then moved to different countries of the world. The IRO’s attempts to find new permanent places of residence for the refugees were linked to the urgent question of labour in post-war Europe, which was devastated both materially and in terms of human resources. In many places, there was a severe shortage of workers, while in the DP camps, people had no job opportunities. Thus, the first emigration projects were exactly specific labour recruitment campaigns.

The era of “refugee camps” was followed by “departure actions”. When it became clear that returning to Latvia would not be possible in the near future and there were no prospects for a longer stay in the war-ravaged and refugee-filled West Germany, in 1946-1947 Latvians started moving to other countries. The envoy of the Republic of Latvia to Great Britain, Head of the Foreign Service and Holder of extraordinary powers, Karlis Zarins, actively visited refugee organisations (especially in the second half of the 1940s and the first half of the 1950s) – he made several visits to compatriots in the occupation zones of Western countries in West Germany and other Western European countries, as well as to the USA and Canada. The exile press reported quite extensively on these trips by Karlis Zarins.

On July 22, 1947, in Switzerland, Australian Immigration Minister Arthur August Calwell signed an agreement on behalf of the Australian government with the Preparatory Commission of the International Refugee Organization (the Preparatory Commission of the International Refugee Organization) on the reception of displaced persons (the DP reception of around 5,000 Baltic refugees). It ushered in a mass exodus of Latvians from Western Europe to Australia. The following year, this quota was increased to 200,000, including Polish, Ukrainian and other refugees from countries behind the “Iron Curtain”.

The first Baltic transport reached Australia on November 28, 1947 with 843 displaced persons, including 243 Latvians. By 1950, almost 200,000 people had come to Australia under agreements with the IRO and other agreements made directly with the United Kingdom and European countries. The immigrants were viewed positively by the Australian press because they were mostly young, unmarried and conformed to the idea of a ‘White Australia’.

Latvijas Republikas ārkārtējais sūtnis un pilnvarotais ministrs Lielbritānijā (1933–1963) Kārlis Zariņš savā darba kabinetā. 1938. gads. LNA