FBI's Red Tape Puts Refugees In Visa Limbo

Forward, July, 2002 by Kessler, E.J.

Kessler, E.J. Forward 07-26-2002 Several hundred Iranian Jewish refugees have been stranded for months in Vienna, some living in squalid conditions, as a result of the FBI's enhanced security reviews of Middle Eastern nationals bound for the United States after the September 11 attacks. The refugees -- 141 men traveling with 191 family members -- are subsisting in what observers call "limbo" while they await what the FBI calls "security advisory opinions," required for all males between the ages of 16 and 50 who seek to enter the United States from countries known to harbor or sponsor terrorists. The plight of the Iranian Jewish refugees -- the changes also affect Iranian Christians, Zoroastrians and Bahais -- occasioned a meeting at the White House last week, as...

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