Mr. Speaker. on the eve of the Madrid Conference. which is to review the compliance of all the signers of the 1975 Helsinki Accords. it is increasingly evident that the tragedy of the repression of Soviet Jewry is being renewed with even greater intensity by the Soviet Government. In a policy apparently implemented last summerbefore the invasion of Afghanistan and the suspension of SALTthe U.S.S.R. began cutting in half the number of Jews permitted to emigrate. This preceded the wholesale "cleaning" of Moscow of refuseniks. dissidents. and other undesirables in preparation for the Olympics. These terribly restrictive emigration quotas are being imposed despite the solemn commitments the Soviets made to its own citizens and the world at Helsinki. despite the importance of this issue to the United States. and despite the growing desire of Soviet Jews to exercise the simple human right of freedom of emigration. The cold statistics speak for themselves. In January 1979. 3.722 Soviet Jews arrived in Vienna. a year later. only 2.803 camea decrease of 25 percent.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration