No safe haven for Nazi war criminals and collaborators

This chapter examines how the ‘no safe haven’ and ‘no impunity’ credos were first translated into policy. After World War II, major migrant-receiving countries began investigating the presence of Nazi war criminals and collaborators within their borders. Many of these individuals had initially been welcomed, but by the 1970s, attitudes shifted - particularly in the United States, where efforts focused on identifying naturalised citizens with questionable pasts and revoking their citizenship. This marked the beginning of the first No Safe Haven policy. However, the next step of deporting these undesirable migrants in many cases turned out to be the real challenge, as many Nazi war criminals and collaborators were stateless or unwanted by their country of origin.