The Hamburg state immigration authorities are worried about the increasing number of Arabs applying for political asylum. They put the figure at 77 over the past five months. Most say they are either Fatah persecutees or Fatah sympathizers under coercion from their own national governments. About 3000 Arabs are registered in Hamburg, and the authorities fear that the two main groups–Fatah victims and sympathizers–could begin fighting in the city.
The authorities also do not exclude the possibility that some of the Arab immigrants may be terrorists. They observe that Arab immigrants into Hamburg use the same methods and give the same reasons as those entering West Berlin from the Middle East via East Berlin. This has been a constant source of terrorist activity in the past. The Hamburg authorities point out that most Arabs employ a lawyer on arrival to get residence terms extended, even before the authorities themselves lay these down.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
