The Nation - News from Sept. 14, 1986

A fifth Polish fisherman requested political asylum at Coos Bay, Ore., a day after four others jumped ship, U.S. officials said. The five gutted and cleaned fish on Polish processing boats. Three said that they are former members of the Solidarity labor union and that if they returned to Poland they could be sent to jail for attempting to defect. The men said they defected because of political conditions in Poland and because they were being persecuted for not joining the government union when Solidarity was broken, a spokeswoman said. The Immigration and Naturalization Service could take up to a month to evaluate the asylum requests.