Soviet Lawmakers Take Up Bill to Allow Free Emigration

The long-awaited draft law that would open Soviet borders to free emigration finally came back onto the floor of the national legislature Tuesday, but the debate showed that the domestic opposition that kept it languishing in committee for a year and a half remains potent.

The measure, which would take effect in mid-1992, acknowledges the right to freedom of movement with only rare exceptions and sets a five-year limit on exit restrictions based on a would-be emigrant’s knowledge of state secrets.

Liberal publicist Fyodor M. Burlatsky, head of the Supreme Soviet’s human rights subcommittee, pleaded with his fellow lawmakers to bring the country fully out of its long, self-imposed isolation by opening its borders.

But Supreme Soviet deputies did not focus on possible benefits--among them American trade and tariff advantages, which the Jackson-Vanik Amendment makes contingent on free Soviet emigration. Instead, they hammered Burlatsky with questions.

They complained that there would not be enough planes and trains to handle the increased traffic, that people whose education had been paid for by the Soviet government would use it to help other countries and that the lumbering state bureaucracy could never handle the millions expected to try to emigrate or travel abroad.

The resources and money required to handle the estimated 2 million citizens who are chafing to work abroad, 5 million hoping to emigrate and 30 million would-be visitors abroad over the next five years would prove prohibitive, according to a government memorandum circulated Tuesday at the Supreme Soviet.

It estimated that the tab to the Soviet state would run to 11.8 billion rubles--$7.4 billion, according to the greatly inflated commercial exchange rate--in local currency and an additional $4.5 billion in foreign exchange.

But Burlatsky said that most countries have established tough immigration quotas for Soviet citizens. He also said almost all of the costs would be picked up by the travelers in customs duties, ticket prices and passport fees.