Some 6,000 new immigrants applied for Israeli passports during the first six months of this year, and immigration officials are concerned that many of them may leave the country for good.
Eighty-six percent of the applicants were newcomers from the Soviet Union, and most were people between the ages of 21 and 40, the Interior Ministry, which is responsible for issuing the travel documents, disclosed Sunday.
Uri Gordon, head of the Immigration and Absorption Department of the Jewish Agency for Israel, said the applications are a clear indication that the new immigrants plan to leave Israel, either because of failure to obtain work or out of general disillusion with their absorption here.
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