Hungary a Main Transit Point : Thousands of E. Germans Push Efforts to Emigrate

The East German refugee problem intensified Wednesday as Hungarian officials disclosed that at least 4,000 would-be emigrants had been caught this year trying to cross the frontier into Austria.

The Budapest daily Nepszabadsag quoted Laszlo Kovacs, a deputy foreign minister of Hungary, as saying: “Unofficial figures indicate that more than a million people are waiting to emigrate from East to West Germany. It is awful to imagine the consequences if just a fraction were to use Hungary as a means of transit.”

At the same time, East Germany warned West Germany that relations between the two, which have improved in recent years, will suffer if West German diplomatic missions in Eastern Europe continue to harbor East Germans hoping to get to the West.

Protest to Diplomat

The East German news agency ADN said the East German Foreign Ministry had protested to the West German diplomatic representative in East Berlin and said that the practice of helping people get from East to West must be stopped.

More than 100 East Germans have taken refuge in the West German mission’s offices in East Berlin, and about 200 others had been staying at the West German consulate in Budapest until it was closed Monday. Still others are in West German offices in Prague and Warsaw. All have asked for documents that would enable them to go to the West.

Entitled to Passports

Under the West German constitution, East Germans are entitled to West German passports, but the authorities in Bonn have not issued them; to do so could subject the holders to criminal charges in East Germany.

East German authorities indicated Wednesday, in response to a letter from West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, that they would welcome diplomatic initiatives to resolve the refugee problem.

They reportedly told the West German representative in East Berlin that West German diplomats in Budapest had been violating international law and bilateral agreements between East and West Germany by helping East Germans get to the West.

“The West German diplomatic missions have no right whatsoever to exercise their so-called duty to protect East Germany citizens,” ADN quoted the East Germans as saying in a note.

The crisis began in Budapest two months ago, when East German tourists began flooding into the country after the Hungarians began removing most of the fence along the frontier with Austria.

Now, Hungary is caught in a dilemma: It has an agreement with its sister Communist state, East Germany, not to allow its citizens to flee to the West, but it has agreed under the U.N. Treaty on Human Rights to recognize refugees.

About 200,000 East Germans have applied for permission to vacation in Hungary this summer, and many of them have made straight for the frontier.

2,213 Halted at Border

According to Col. Andras Maday, deputy commander of Hungary’s border guard, 2,213 East Germans were stopped trying to cross into Austria as of July. He said the number has increased this month.

The West German Embassy in Budapest, which was closed along with the consulate because it could not handle the crush of East Germans demanding asylum, has put up money for makeshift refugee centers and hotel rooms in the Hungarian capital. It also had begun advising the East Germans to apply for immigration through official East German channels.

“A solution must be found urgently,” Deputy Foreign Minister Kovacs was quoted as saying, “or else the queue will never end.”