103. Information Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs (Schifter) to Secretary of State Shultz1
SUBJECT
- Soviet Emigration Practices
SUMMARY. We have received confirmation that as of January 1, 1988 Soviet emigration rules have once again been tightened. This latest step by the Soviets contradicts Shevardnadze’s statements to you and the statements of other Soviet officials in the Summit Working Group on Human Rights. It is embarrassing to us in light of the President’s hopeful public comments on Soviet emigration after the Summit. END SUMMARY.
Under the emigration decree announced in November 1986,2 the most severe restriction, in terms of the numbers affected, is the provision that an applicant for an exit permit must produce an invitation from a spouse, parent, child, or sibling living abroad. This provision, which disqualifies the great majority of potential applicants, was rigidly applied to new applicants (as distinct from Refuseniks) in the early months of 1987. We raised objections to it then. Thereafter, on the occasion of their visit to Moscow, Dobrynin indicated to Abram and [Page 307] Bronfman3 that this provision was designed to hamper the emigration of Russians, Ukrainians, etc., but that it would be interpreted “flexibly” in dealing with certain other groups. A few months later the word appeared to have gotten down to the lower echelons and we began to notice that persons sponsored by more distant relatives were indeed allowed to leave the Soviet Union. The “flexible interpretation” benefited all three emigrating groups, Armenians, Germans and Jews.
You will recall that Foreign Minister Shevardnadze4 told you that the only applications for exit permits that will be denied will be those of persons who possess secret information. That is also what we were told in our December 8 and 9, 1987, Human Rights Working Group sessions by Soviet Foreign Ministry officials. Only later did we find out that a Communist Party Central Committee staffer who had been in the Gorbachev party at the Summit had warned some of his U.S. interlocutors that there would be a drop in emigration after January 1, 1988. (This means that the Foreign Ministry officials deliberately misled us or were uninformed. I think it was the latter.)
As it is, there has been no discernible drop in emigration as yet. However, the flow of new applications is being reduced by not accepting those filed by persons not sponsored by first-degree relatives and even returning some applications which had been filed earlier.
We can’t be sure why the Soviets have once again tightened their emigration rules. It is worthy of note, however, that in early 1987 the number of Jews applying for exit permits was low, which may have caused the Soviet authorities to loosen the restrictions. Toward the end of 1987 there was a sudden-surge of new applications, which may have alarmed the Soviets, causing them to turn off the tap once again.
Comment: This development is both substantively troublesome and embarrassing. It is embarrassing because the President announced after the Summit that he was hopeful regarding future developments concerning emigration from the Soviet Union. As he put it: “There were assurances of future, more substantial movement, which we hope to see become reality.”5 Far from being realized, the movement has so far been in the wrong direction.
We cannot be certain what the impact of this policy change will be on the present pattern of Jewish emigration, which appears to be at the rate of 10,000 annually. There are three possibilities. First, it is [Page 308] conceivable that there is a sufficient stream of eligible emigrants so that the present rate can be maintained while keeping the restriction in place. More likely, the present rate cannot be maintained once the present backlog is exhausted with the restriction in effect, leading (a) to a drop in the rate of emigration, or (b) once again to a relaxation in the rule. We obviously will want to press for the latter.
- Source: Department of State, Correspondence File—Ambassador Richard Schifter CHRON and Subject Files, 1984–1991, Lot 94D411, R. Schifter’s Monthly Chron—1988 January. Confidential. Drafted by Schifter. Copies were sent to Whitehead, Kampelman, Ridgway, Parris, Abramowitz, and Zimmermann. There is no indication that Shultz saw the memorandum.↩
- See footnote 3, Document 88.↩
- See footnote 3, Document 92.↩
- In an April 21, 1987, information memorandum to Shultz, Ridgway and Schifter described a list of human rights emigration cases presented to Shultz by Shevardnadze. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, P870099–1746)↩
- For the full text of Reagan’s December 10 address, see Public Papers: Reagan, 1987, Book II, pp. 1501–1504.↩