Speech #970137699

Speaker. I am including in todays RECORD an alarming article by Mr. Frank Kiehne which recently appeared in the New York Times concerning the deplorable U.S. policy of deporting Salvadoran refugees back to their wartorn nation. Mr. Kiehne is the interim director of Church World Services immigration and refugee program In New York City. I was outraged to learn from Mr. Kiehnes article that nearly 1.000 Salvadorans each month are being sent back to their homeland. where they will most certainly be subjugated to the brutal human rights abuses of the Salvadoran Government and Its outofcontrol military forces. This policy flatly contradicts both the United Nations 1967 Protocol Related to the Status of Refugees. and our own Refugee Act of 1980 which seek to prevent refugees from being returned against their will to a territory where they face persecution. Just as repugnant Is the reported treatment which these refugees receive while being detained in the United States. According to Mr. Kiehne. lawyers and others engaged in refugee assistance projects in INS de. tention facilities report that Salvador-