In what the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (SSSJ) and Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) called. “an unprecedented move that may well seal the small crack in the iron door still open, ” emigration authorities in the Ukrainian city of Kharkov have reportedly notified Jewish exit applicants that if they are refused visas, they must sign a declaration that they have been warned that they cannot apply again, and that may will get a job within a month.
Normally, a refusnik can reapply every half year but those who are left without jobs’ are often threatened with imprisonment for “parasitism. ” In the post few years, restrictive emigration policies have began in Ukrainian cities, then spread throughout the USSR, the SSSJ and the UCSJ reported.
Recent emigration has steadily dropped as restrictions grow ever higher, the SSSJ and UCSJ said Tens of thousands of Jews have been-refused even the opportunity to apply to leave because, they are told, they do not have an immediate family living in Israel. Other Jews who manage to apply may wait for months on end without receiving an answer.
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