USSR Agrees to New Transit Procedure for Jewish Emigrants That Would Eliminate the Dropout Phenomeno

The Soviet Union has agreed to establish a new transit procedure for future Jewish emigres that would eliminate the phenomenon of noshrim (dropouts)– Jews who leave the Soviet Union with an Israeli visa, but when they arrive in Vienna choose to settle in Europe or the United States.

According to Rabbi Arthur Schneier of New York, who said he negotiated the new procedure last month in Moscow and Bucharest, Jews leaving the Soviet Union in the future will go to Israel through Rumania where they will not be able to obtain visas to the United States or other countries.

Schneier, president of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, an interreligious group working for human rights and religious freedom, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Monday that he negotiated the procedure in meetings with Communist Party Secretaries Aleksander Yakovlev and Anatoly Dobrynin in February, while attending the International Forum for a Nuclear-Free World for the Survival of Humanity in Moscow. He also discussed the issue, he said, with Rumanian President Nicolae Ceausescu who assured him of his support of the new arrangements.

“If anything, the new transit procedure will clearly establish the genuine quality of invitations extended by Soviet Jews already in Israel to their relatives in the Soviet Union,” Schneier said. “I feel therefore, that it could increase the number of exit visas given to Soviet Jews because it represents a genuine process of family reunifications.”

Schneier noted, however, that regardless of the new transit procedure, he believes that more Jews will be allowed to leave the Soviet Union in the future.

FROM RUMANIA TO ISRAEL

Noting that the details of the new emigration procedure are not yet finalized, Schneier said that Jews who are given exit visas will be flown to Rumania and from there directly to Israel, without an opportunity to apply for a visa to the United States. He said he could not disclose the name of the Rumanian city that would be used for the direct flights to Tel Aviv, “out of security reasons.”

Rumania, the rabbi noted, is the only East European country that has diplomatic ties with Israel and that “there are regular flights between the two countries.” Although officials in Jerusalem and Washington said Monday they were not aware of a change in Soviet emigration procedure, Israel in fact has been actively seeking such a change in order to stem the growing number of dropouts.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, during his visit to the United States last month, asked the Reagan Administration to deny refugee status to Soviet Jews who leave the Soviet Union with an Israeli visa. It is estimated that more than 80 percent of Soviet Jews who received exit visas in recent years claimed refugee status upon their arrival in Vienna and settled in the United States instead of continuing to Israel.

Schneier told the JTA that the new transit procedure will be enacted “shortly” after “technical arrangements” are completed. He could not provide an exact date.