U.S. Suspends Soviet Immigration : Lack of Funds Blamed; Armenians Assail Disruption

The U.S Embassy will not process Soviets who want to settle in the United States as refugees until Oct. 1 because a huge surge in immigrants has exhausted government funds, an embassy spokeswoman said today.

Armenians, who were the hardest hit by the move, criticized the decision.

Embassy spokeswoman Marguerite Squire said the United States will continue to accept applications from Soviets wishing to settle in the United States, but on Monday embassy officials began postponing the last step in approval of the applications, pre-departure interviews.

She said the government has no more funds for the refugees’ housing, food, clothing and transportation. The cutback is to last until a new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

The restrictions affect any Soviet citizen applying to the embassy for political asylum in the United States, but they affect Armenians most of all.

Last month, the embassy issued a record 2,063 immigration visas, 94% of which were for Armenians. The figures do not include most Soviet Jews, who generally leave the Soviet Union on Israeli visas and get U.S. visas in Western Europe.

“We are ready to start a new life in a new country and what happens?” would-be immigrant Mushegh Sarafyan said today. “Already they are deceiving us.”

Sarafyan was among about 50 Armenian men, women and children huddled on a street next to the embassy under overcast skies. They said that they had received permission from the Soviet government to emigrate to join relatives in Los Angeles, but that American diplomats told them of the delay this week.

They accused the U.S. government of being insensitive and questioned whether budgetary constraints are the real reason for the new restrictions.

“America is such a rich country. Why can’t it afford to take in 70 families?” Sarafyan said. He said American diplomats had told 70 Armenian families who applied for immigration within the last few months to show up this week at the embassy for the pre-departure interviews. But now the families have been left out in the cold.

“We moved out of our apartments, our homes, we sold our clothes and quit our jobs, and now we are left practically on the street,” he said.

Sarafyan said the would-be emigres had expected to leave the Soviet Union this week after completing American paper work and have no place to stay in Moscow between now and October.

“The U.S. Embassy should have given us at least a month. This way they told us nothing. Who is responsible? No one is helping us,” he said.