West Berlin will stop Soviet Jews from entering the city illegally, the Berlin Senate decided today. The 300 Soviet Jews in the city illegally will be allowed to stay, but in the future the aliens laws will be applied fully. Jews seeking to enter West Berlin illegally from Israel or Austria will be deported, but Jews applying for visas from Israel will be treated in the normal way.
Between August 1973 and November 1974. 546 Soviet Jews entered the city 17 from Austria, the remainder from Israel. About 200 of these are ethnic Germans. The Marienfelde Emergency Camp in West Berlin will in the future only be open to Soviet Jews of German origin. Those who come from Israel have Israeli passports or travel documents. Almost all were reported by Berlin authorities to have entered Berlin on temporary three-month visitor permits. In many cases, these permits have expired, but they have been allowed to remain.
Of the more than 500 Jews who have entered the city since the autumn of 1973. 200 have been given permission to remain. They are mainly skilled workers and have found permanent homes. The Senate move has the approval of the Jewish community in Berlin. The Berlin authorities up to now have interpreted the aliens law liberally in the case of Soviet Jewish immigrants, but now. it seems, they are concerned by the continued flow and the increasing administrative problems involved. The Senate today denied that the new measures were the consequence of complaints by the Palestine Liberation Organization.
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