Too few recognize that international mail is a lifeline of support to Soviet citizens wishing to be in contact with friends and family in the United States. Additionally. it is not widely known that unobstructed mail delivery is vital to those who wish to leave the country. To emigrate. a citizen must present a written invitation from abroad before applying. Since 1979. narrow rules determined that this invitation must come from firstdegree kin. virtually precluding hundreds of thousands of people from receiving the mandatory document. If such invitations are diverted. lost. or simply not delivered. then the laborious emigration process cannot be completed. and the individual involved stands no chance of being allowed to emigrate. This is a tragic situation. for behind the cold statistics lies the realization that tens of thousands of Jews are now being denied the right to build new lives and to exercise their fundamental cultural. religious. and personal freedoms. By continuing its practices in obstructing mail delivery. the Soviet Union is violating an integral element of the human contracts provision of the Helsinki Final Act. a human rights act which was signed in 1975 by the United States and 34 other countries. including the Soviet Union.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration