Throughout my tenure in Congress. I have made it a priority to speak out for the human rights of Soviet Jews and other oppressed minorities in the Soviet Union. Today. a truly tragic situation exists due to the deteriorating numbers of Soviet Jews who are granted permission to emigrate from the U.S.S.R. Since the State Department is now conducting a review of its position visavis the Soviet Union. and Secretary Shultz is meeting with his counterpart from the Soviet Union. I believe the time is ideal for a discussion of this abrogation of the Helsinki accords. The facts are that. one. emigration of Soviet Jews has fallen to an alarmingly low rate. approximately 200 people per month have been allowed to leave recently. rather than the thousands we saw leaving in the mid to late 1970s. Two. Hebrew and Jewish cultural classes have been broken up with threats. intimidation and arrests. Three. more than 65 Soviet Jewish scientists have been stripped of their degrees and made nonpersons in their professions due to their desire to emigrate from the U.S.S.R. Fourth. prisoners of conscience are suffering more deprivation than is usual even in the harsh Soviet labor camp system. And fifth. the arrest of all but a few of the unofficial Helsinki accord monitors has led to the recent dismantling of the group.
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emigrate emigration