Busloads Try to Beat West German Crackdown : 3rd World Refugees Flock to W. Berlin

About 600 buses filled with 27,000 Third World refugees are heading toward West Berlin from the East Bloc to beat a crackdown on emigration to prosperous West Germany, government officials said Saturday.

A spokesman for the West German Foreign Ministry said the 600 westbound buses with an estimated 27,000 asylum seekers are part of a last wave who will be allowed free immigration through West Berlin.

East Germany has agreed to West Germany’s pleas to stop permitting the asylum seekers to pass through its territory on the way to West Berlin unless they hold a visa for West Germany.

The East Berlin government has said it will start imposing the new rule Wednesday, touching off a race by Asian, African and Middle Eastern refugees to beat the deadline.

A ministry spokesman said an appeal was made Friday to diplomats representing Bulgaria and Poland that their governments should also demand to see entry visas for foreigners heading for West Germany.

West German officials suspect that East Bloc airlines are flying planeloads of refugees to destinations such as Warsaw so they can continue their trek to West Germany via West Berlin.

The West German government guarantees asylum to people who face religious, racial or political persecution in their homelands, but officials say the privilege is being abused by people who are really only fleeing poverty.

The West German government, while blaming countries like East Germany for its own problem, has already announced measures aimed at choking off immigration for economic reasons. A constitutional change has been blocked by political opposition.

Kohl’s View of Situation

Chancellor Helmut Kohl met with the leaders of most major parties at his Chancellery Thursday evening to discuss further measures against immigration.

“Whoever is persecuted for political, racial or religious reasons must find a refuge in our country,” Kohl said in an interview on German television Friday.

But he added: “We are no country of immigration.”

Wolfgang Schaeuble, a top Kohl aide, told a news conference Friday that the governing center-right coalition and the opposition Social Democrats have included East Bloc refugees in a package of proposals for restricting immigration.

Tens of thousands of refugees, mostly from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, have poured into West Germany in recent months.