U.S. to take Salvadorean Leftist refugees

Press, 23 September 1983, Page 6

U.S. to take Salvadorean Leftist refugees

NZPA Washington The Reagan Administration has quietly informed Congress that for the first time the United States will admit as many as 200 Salvadoreans as political refugees to the country, the “New York Times” reports.

The decision to allow the Salvadoreans to enter the United States along with refugees from Communist and Right-wing dictatorships had been made after extensive debate in the Administration, officials said. Some officials, they said, had argued that by admitting Salvadoreans as politi-

cal refugees the Administration would be implicitly acknowledging that political persecution exists in El Salvador, despite the strong Administration backing for the Salvadorean Government. But in the end the State Department had recommended to the Justice Department that for humanitarian reasons the United States should accept 209 Salvadoreans as political refugees in the fiscal year that will begin on October 1. The group that will be admitted will be drawn from 554 former political

prisoners plus their families who were released during the northern summer as part of an amnesty programme. State Department officials said that the 554 were mostly Leftist or Leftist sympathisers who in some cases had been imprisoned for political beliefs in El Salvador. The El Salvador Government, after freeing the group under the amnesty, had asked the Inter-Govern-mental Committee for Migration, an international agency, for help in finding a refuge abroad for the

former prisoners. It had indicated that it could not guarantee their safety from Right-wing reprisals, State Department officials said. Of the 200 the Administration planned to admit, about 50 would be former prisoners and the rest members of their families, an official said. This decision did not overturn the Administration’s continued refusal to grant legal status to an estimated 500, GOO Salvadoreans already in the United States who did not want to return to El Salvador, he said. Many were

seeking legal status under the determination of “extended voluntary departure,” which means that they cannot be deported. But in agreeing to accept the 200 as political prisoners the administration had for the first time legally acknowledged that there were dangers of reprisals for at least a group of Salvadoreans, an official said. The Administration informed the House judiciary sub-committee on refugees on Wednesday of the plans for refugees in the next fiscal year, including the

decision on the Salvadoreans. The Salvadorean political refugees made up only a small portion of the worldwide total, officials said. The Administration recommended — subject to Congressional consultation — that the United States admit 72,000 refugees in the 1984 fiscal year. Officials said that although the political prisoners who had been released in El Salvador were mostly Leftist, they would be screened before being admitted. _____

So far Canada has taken in 131 of the 554 former Salvadorean political prisoners, plus 159 of their relatives. Australia has taken 44 and 52 relatives. Other countries to take former prisoners are Norway, Sweden, and Belgium. “We were approached,” one official said, “and after some reflection, many conservatives were dead-set against taking any. They said this would leave the impression that there are refugees from El Salvador and that El Salvador does not protect its people.”