Speech #1000006734

Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to participate in this special order to highlight the plight of Soviet citizens who have been refused permission to emigrate to join their family members in the West. Once again. the Soviet Union has tightened their control on emigration. but under the disguise of the decree of the U.S.S.R. Council of Minister. which supposedly simplifies and speeds up the emigration process. The new decree states that visa applications will be considered for reunification of family members. meetings with close relatives. marriage. and visits to seriously ailing relatives. All decisions on emigrant applications are to be made within 1 month unless "further consideration is necessary. with a waiting period of up to 6 months." But. this new decree also lists numerous reasons for which emigration can be denied. including the vaguely worded phrase. "if the protection of Soviet social order. health. and morals of the population would be affected by the applicants departure." This new law permits only those Jews with immediate family in Israel to emigrate there. Under these restrictions 90 percent of the 400.000 people who have asked to leave will be denied. This new decree has extended the past practice of denying departure for 5 years for knowledge of "state secrets" to an undefined limit of "such time as the circumstances preventing departure expires." Because no date is specified the applicant could be permanently denied an exit visa. This new decree makes a mockery of due process of law and ignores the rights of emigration for the many Jews without immediate family members abroad. It is another attempt by the Soviet Union to side step the principles of the Helsinki accords. An example of Soviet noncompliance is the gentleman on whose behalf I am concernedGennady Feldman. Gennady has been applying to emigrate since 1976. He hopes to join his sister and elderly parents who now live in Israel. His parents are ill. and want only to live to see their son. Gennady. because he applied to emigrate now lives the tragic life of a refusnik. He cannot find work. he has no place to live and depends on friends for shelter. and he has been beaten by auxiliary police. The Soviet Government punishes Gennady for a desire to be reunited with his family by assuring that he is an outcast in Soviet society and by denying him the right to leave. I call upon the Soviet Union to live up to their responsibilities as a signatory of the Helsinki accords and to allow Gennady Feldman to exercise the basic human right of emigration.