The Council of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) held its fifteenth session from October 23 to October 27, 1961, in Geneva, under the chairmanship of Dr. Mario Raul Pico (Argentina). During the first day's meeting, the delegates granted observer status to delegations from Japan and the European Economic Community (EEC). The Council examined a progress report in which it was noted that the Committee had helped re-establish in new homes 56,462 migrants in the first seven months of 1961—a drop of almost 3,000 from the same period in 1960. The decline resulted chiefly from a slowdown in migration to Australia. The total number of workers—both industrial and agricultural—leaving Europe for Latin America under ICEM auspices during the seven-month period was almost double that of 1960.