Speech #1020047357

Mr. Speaker. all of us who have been working over the years to secure the right of Soviet Jews and other persecuted minorities to emigrate freely from the Soviet Union enthusiastically welcomed glasnost and economic reform in that country. The dramatic emigration of hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews to Israel is nothing short of exhilarating. However. with the atmosphere in the Soviet Union of volatile and violent political instability. economic collapse. the resurgence of the Soviet right. and a proliferation of antiSemitic scapegoating. the need to assist Soviet refugees has become extremely urgent. Already we are beginning to see disturbing signs in Soviet emigration policy. There are longer delays in processing and arbitrary denials by the OVIRS of exit visas to Soviet refugees already accepted to the United States. There is a reemergence of visa refusals on the basis of traditional impediments such as alleged access to state secrets or eligibility for military service. One victim of these regressive policies is Mr. Moses Iskin. Mr. Iskin has been trying to emigrate from the Soviet Union to join his family in the United States since 1979. He has been refused an exit visa because it is believed that he had access to secret information in his job as a top physicist in the defense industry working at the Admirality Plant as the head of the physical laboratory. In 1972. the work of the laboratory changed and is no longer considered secret. Mr. iskin has not been exposed to secret information for over 15 years. At least four of Mr. Iskins coworkers have already been permitted to emigrate. Mr. Iskin applied to the General Director of the Admirality Plant four times. the Ministry of Shipbuilding three times. the Visa Department of the U.S.S.R. and the Commission on Human Rights of the Leningrad Soviet each one time. He has also appealed to the President of the Soviet Union. On his last appeal to emigrate. Mr. Iskin was told that he would have to wait until 1993 before applying again.