Mr. Speaker. I rise in strong support of House Concurrent Resolution 188 concerning the freedom of emigration and travel for Syrian Jews. I have long been concerned with the treatment of the Jewish community In Syria. Treated as secondclass citizens. the 4.000 members of this community live In ghettos under constant police surveillance. Jewish homes have been randomly searched at night by the secret police and sacred Jewish property has been needlessly desecrated. I am extremely concerned that the fundamental freedoms to travel and to emigrate continue to be denied to the Syrian Jewish community. For a Jew to travel from Syria. large sums of money must be given and members of his Immediate family must remain In Syria to ensure his return. Jews suspected of having traveled or even of planning to do so have been arrested. beaten. and even tortured. In fact. six people are currently Imprisoned solely for trying to leave Syria. Travel restrictions and the denial of the right to emigrate are direct violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which Syria Is a signatory. Mr. Speaker. this systematic persecution of the Jewish minority in Syria must stop.
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emigrate emigration