Speech #880282825

Mr. Speaker. in the course of the hearings on pending immigration legislation. our subcommittee heard startling testimony concerning the treatment of refugees who escaped from Tito communism into Italy and Austria. That testimony was presented by Mr. Joseph V. Bosilievic. president of the American Society for Migration. Mr. Bosilievic appealed to the Congress of the United States for assistance in putting a stop to the procedures governing the reception of these refugees. procedures which make a sham of the vaunted claim of the free world that asylum is given those who escape the tyranny of communism. In order that Members might be acquainted with this testimony and the particulars presented by Mr. Bosilievic. by unanimous consent previously granted. I include the testimony of Mr. Bosilievic: There are today about 40 million people called refugees. expellees. or escapees. The world solemnly proclaimed the principles of human rights. freedom. independence. and selfdetermination for every nation. yet at the same time there are millions of people. sometimes whole nations. given to certain governments as a reward for participation in a war or a revolution. Unscrupulous ideologies incite new crises around the world and there is no end to this in sight. The admission of political refugees into the United States was primarily motivated by humanitarian desire to help needy people. at the same time it was and will be in the future a mighty political weapon inside and outside of the United States in achieving some other aspects especially to fight the communism. There are practically no refugees from the large Communist countries in Europe. On the other hand there have been in the last 6 or 7 years. more new refugees from Communist Yugoslavia than from all the rest of the European Communist countries combined. At this point. I would like to emphasize the astonishing fact that about 85 percent of all the new refugees escaping the multination state of Yugoslavia are Croats. For many years the Croatian refugees have been an absolute majority of all European refugees. They comprise today the main refugee problem In Europe. and this report will therefore handle primarily their problem. Tens of thousands of new European refugees seek asylum in the neighboring small Western countries. like Austria and Italy. to be the guests at a poor table. Those European countries with an unbearable refugee burden considered the following facts: (a) Lack of interest of the free world about the fate of the refugees. (b) Insufficient financial support by the free world for food and shelter for refugees on their territory. (c) Their gevernments have been exposed to the pressure of neighboring Communist regimes and the Communists In their own country trying to suppress all measures helping the refugees. (d) These governments started to listen more willingly to the friendly Communist offers to negotiate the refugee problem. and finally accepted Communist suggestions to make profitable mutual agreements. In spite of beautifully declared resolu. tions concerning freedom and respect of human dignity. a shame of our century evolved gradually from this situation. The Austrian and Italian Governments started to forcibly extradite new refugees back into their Communist governments. Years ago extradition constituted about 10 percent of all new refugees. but this percentage has been substantially increased every year. In the last 2 years. the Italian and Austrian Governments have extradited 75 to 85 percent of all new refugees seeking asylum on their territory. The European governments. together with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. have been keeping the extradition of refugees a wellkept secret from the free world. At the same time the Communist government of Yugoslavia has been giving those extraditions full publicity under the following typical caption: "You cannot expect anything from the West if you flee your own country. It is much better for you to stay and work with us Communists at home." The practice of yearly extraditing thousands of refugees. represents a serious shock for the prestige of the freedomloving tradition of the West. These extraditions cannot be considered as an internal affair of a small European country because the number of people is too large: about 10.000 new refugees flee from Yugoslavia only to the West each year. and the majority is extradited at once. I will describe the procedure of these extraditions in Italy. The refugees are not informed of the extradition. Then after a few weeks. receive an order to prepare for transfer to another refugee camp in Italy. Before arriving on Yugoslav border. and In order to prevent escape or rioting. the refugees are sometimes bound together with chains like criminals. and then handed over to the Communist authorities in Yugoslavia. There have been news in the European press and Croatian newspapers of suicides. riots. and death accidents occurring among the refugees at the extradition. An entire system of deceits for the Western World was invented. First of all. a new status for refugees from Yugoslavia was created by creating the new terms of a "political" and "economic" refugee. The criterion for placing the refugees into such categories Is evidently absurb. In final analysis the general poor economic standard prevailing In Communist countries is the product of Communist ideology and unsuccessful experiments by the Communist dictorial regimes. Everyone who Joins the Communist Party stands to improve his status in all respects. and there is no need for him to flee the country. Who refuses to Join the party and is either persecuted or denied the means for a respectable living. when he flees to the West he is then considered an economic refugee since there is no definition or exact distinction possible between the terms "poA1492 litical" and "economic" refugee. Almost all the complaints denounce the screening. the police officer. and interpreter. The status of an "economic refugee" means a danger of extradition. no support is established refugee camps. and an absolute and unmistakable provision in our U.S. law preventing his admission into the United States. I would like to emphasize that our Government has no authority whatsoever in deciding who will be officially declared a "political" refugee. The screening and decisionmaking was left entirely with the European governments. It is tragic that this decision actually belongs to a police official of a small European country. And his own opinion actually determines whether a refugee will or will not be admitted into the United States. Our Pubiic Law 648 provides admission for "political refugees." excluding any other category. Evidently. we forgot to provide for our own participation in such decisions. The Communists are taking advantage of this as will be indicated later on. The Yugoslav Communist Government tries to convince the free Western World that no help is necessary for the refugees simply because the political and economic circumstances in Yugoslavia are good. that they have already proclaimed a political amnesty. and that all their citizens can obtain a passport for travel in foreign countries. The West readily accepts all such statements in spite of proof to the contrary: the number of refugees hasnt gotten smaller. it even increased. Admittedly. there are now issued more passports in Yugoslavia but there is also known the fact that the bearers of those passports are mostly members of the Communist Party or their friends. Some other people have received passports also. especially women and old people. But as a matter of principle. the Communist government strictly rejects all applications for passport if the applicants are antiCommunist. I want also to mention the inhuman practice that almost every married refugee fleeing from Yugoslavia without family is denied status of political asylum. In most cases. it means his forcible repatriation. There is no explaining how anybody fleeing his country to escape persecution is supposed to take along his wife and children. exposing them to all dangers. even death.