 The island is located close to the town centre.Tubabao was used by the International Refugee Organization (IRO) in 1949 and 1950 to provide a temporary refuge for 5,000 Russian refugees escaping from China.The Russians were survivors of the Bolshevik Russian Revolution of 1917 and Russian Civil War of 1919-1920, when the Tsarist autocracy was overthrown by the socialists.