The Foreign Ministry has confirmed that Jews wishing to leave the Soviet Union to immigrate to Israel will soon be forced to pick up their Israeli visas at the Israel Consulate in Bucharest.
Until now the visas have been issued by the Dutch Embassy in Moscow, which looks after Israel’s interests in the Soviet Union.
Once in possession of the Soviet exit visa and the Israeli entrance visa, the emigrants have until now used them to go to Vienna. From there, they were free to go wherever they could obtain another entry visa.
The new regulations are meant to eliminate this “drop out” of Soviet Jews granted exit visas for Israel.
Of the 8,000 Jews granted exit visas to Israel this year, only 20 percent came here.
An Israeli official is quoted here as saying that any Soviet Jew granted an exit permit on the strength of an Israeli entry visas was duty-bound to come to Israel. Once here, he or she had the full right to go on wherever they wished, he said.
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