Iraqi Jewish Student Permitted to Remain in U.S. Under Provisions of Dp Act

An Iraqi Jewish student studying in the U.S., who claimed that he could not return to Iraq because of racial and religious persecution against Jews in that country, has been permitted to remain in the U.S. with immigrant status under the Displaced Persons Act, the American Jewish Congress announced here today. The student’s name was not disclosed for fear that the Iraqi Government might retaliate against his family.

The A.J.C., which has pressed for the application of the DP Act to Jews from the Middle East, hailed the ruling as “an important precedent which will extend the humanitarian privileges of the DP Act to Jews from many Moslem lands.” The Congress had argued before the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service that the clause in the DP Act providing that benefits of the Act be extended to victims of “events subsequent to the outbreak of World War II” should apply to Jews from the Middle East.