From: clarinews@clarinet.com (BOGDAN TUREK)
Newsgroups: clari.news.gov.international,clari.news.hot.east_europe,clari.news.features,clari.news.issues,clari.news.issues.civil_rights
Subject: Romanians flood Poland seeking new life in Germany
Keywords: international, non-usa government, government, refugees,
        social issues, civil rights
Date: 31 Aug 92 18:54:49 GMT
Location: eastern europe
ACategory: international
Slugword: poland-romanians
Priority: advance
Format: feature
ANPA: Wc: 869; Id: z3957; Sel: xeigf; Adate: 8-31-250ped
Codes: yigffxe., yixrfxx., yixhfxx., tncn....
Note: (950)
 (for release at will)



 _U_P_I _N_e_w_s_F_e_a_t_u_r_e

        WARSAW, Poland (UPI) -- They sit hidden in the bushes for hours along
the Polish-German border, waiting for the opportunity to cross the Oder
River to Germany -- the land of their dreams.
        They are Romanians, arriving by the thousands since Germany lifted
visa requirements for Poland and most of the rest of Eastern Europe last
year.
        Many are caught. Border guards turn back an average of 1,000 a week.
        Some have been stopped many times.
        ``They are like a family to us,'' joked one of the guards who
sometimes lend their own jogging suits to wet refugees.
        Those who manage to cross into Germany illegally and reach the
refugee camp of Rostock near the border need police protection from
local residents and neo-Nazi groups beat asylum-seeking foreigners.
        The Romanians enter Poland legally, by carrying a crisp $100 bill,
carefully folded in plastic, to meet the requirement for a five-day
stay. Often several people use the same money, by handing it along to
fellow compatriots at the border.
        But once in Poland, the Romanians immediately head for the western
border, causing a problem of major proportions for both German and
Polish officials.
        Romanians who are caught get a so-called administrative visa stamped
into their passports, which obligates the owner to leave Poland within
48 hours.
        But there is no enforcement. Instead, they often filter back to
Warsaw or other major cities and dream of their next attempt.
        A township of tents and makeshift shelters for several hundred
refugees has been formed by Romanian gypsies near the Warsaw Eastern
railway station. Most of them know just enough Polish words to beg.
        ``Romania is bad, Poland is good,'' said a smiling Romanian man
living in the squalid tent city.
        ``Ceausescu (the former Romanian dictator) and current leader (Ion)
Iliescu banged, banged, banged,'' a woman said haltingly, striking her
cheeks with her fists to drive home her point.
        ``We don't have homes in Romania. We want to go to Germany,'' was the
refrain of one after another.
        A pregnant woman accompanied by a child of about two years pointed to
her abdomen, saying she needs money for the hospital -- a luxury she
surely will never obtain.
        During the day, the Romanians beg in the streets of the major Polish
cities. The collected Polish money is immediately changed into hard
currency at the currency offices.
        Unofficial figures suggest some 200,000 Romanians are in Poland. The
majority already have attempted to cross the Polish-German border at
least once.
        ``We are helpless,'' said Capt. Jerzy Ronowski, a border guard.
        Polish officials cannot deport the Romanians by train because
Czechoslovakia and Hungary do not allow Polish trains carrying deportees
to pass through their territory. Deportations by plane, at more than
$200 a head, are too expensive.
        Polish and German border guards cannot begin to control 600 miles of
the so-called ``green border.''
        In the last six months, some 15,000 people were caught trying to
cross illegally, including 12,450 Romanians.
        German Interior Minister Rudolf Seiters recently visited Poland to
discuss the problem and apparently promised financial help. It is
believed Germany may help Poland pay for some deportations by plane.
        A Romanian Embassy official in Warsaw, Constantin Budianu, said the
problem will not be solved soon.
        He said the only thing Romanian authorities can do is to temporarily
limit trips to Poland of those who have committed various offenses,
including illegal border crossings.
        Both the Polish Foreign Ministry and Romanians are against
reintroduction of visas. The visa requirement was lifted only a few
months ago, and re-imposing it would be considered a setback to European
unity.
        ``It would not be in the spirit of our time to reintroduce visas,''
Budianu said.
        Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Grzegorz Dziemidowicz agrees,
noting Poland has won the right for its citizens to travel freely across
continental Europe except for Spain, Greece and Portugal.
        ``We fought for free travels for a long time,'' he said. ``We would
not initiate this measure.''
        Poland is considering introducing a new system of invitations but
that may not work either.
        There are thousands of Russians or Ukrainians who buy false
invitations on the black market and come to Poland to trade or to
conduct illegal business in cooperation with the Polish underground.
        To complicate matters, the desperate Romanians are often themselves
victimized.
        The Polish newspapers are full of reports of Polish, Bulgarian,
German and Romanian mafias living on their naivety and poverty.
        Special guides who drop off the Romanians close to the border charge
up to 300 German marks -- about $209 -- per person.
        The government newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported one set of ``guides''
posted ``border poles'' far from the real border line on Polish
territory, collected the money, dropped off their charges and
disappeared.
        ``A van load of about 15 Romanians who thought they were in Germany
was caught by the guards,'' the newspaper said.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.romanian