The World : Soviets Fail to Grant Visas

Months after agreeing to let more than 90 people leave the country to join family members in the West, the Soviet Union has granted only half the necessary exit visas, the State Department charged. “Despite assurances through diplomatic channels in December, 1985, and January, 1986, that several dual-citizenship (cases) and a larger number of family reunification cases would be resolved, the individuals involved still face bureaucratic hurdles to their emigration,” the department said. The charge was made in the department’s semiannual report to Congress on Soviet Bloc compliance with the 1975 Helsinki accord on human rights.