The Moroccan Government is maintaining restrictions on the free movement of people from that country which prevents the Jewish Agency from extending existence to “tens of thousands of Moroccan immigrants who wish to bring their families from Morocco to Israel,” the Jewish Agency said today.
It denied published reports that Morocco had eased its restrictions on Jewish emigration and pointed out that while the Moroccan Government had repeatedly promised to facilitate freedom of movement in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Human Rights, the experience of the past year had shown that it was not yet doing so.
“There is absolutely no indication that the Moroccan Government has relaxed the passport restrictions which were imposed in May, 1956 at a time when 70, 000 applications of Moroccan Jews for immigration to Israel were pending,” the spokesman said “Jews of Moroccan origin settled in Israel, who for more than a year have been endeavoring to bring their relatives from Morocco, report no relaxation of any kind. On the contrary, the present situation is that applicants for individual Moroccan passports are embroiled in red tape and passport applications have not been processed. In fact, there have been recent cases of passport holders who were sent back from the borders when trying to leave the country.”
The spokesman said the Agency had no confirmation of a report that 2,000 Jews were waiting at Marseilles for permission to return to Morocco. He said the Agency had a camp at Marseilles for North African Jews awaiting transit to Israel and reported some 150 persons presently there.
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