Do Not Enter

As a haven, West Germany has many attractions. The country is relatively safe and stable. It offers steady growth, low inflation and generous welfare programs. Best of all, the Federal Republic has an unusually liberal asylum law that was adopted in 1949 to accommodate Germans fleeing East European Communist rule. Small wonder that roughly 245 refugees, mostly from the Middle East, Iran and the Indian subcontinent, arrive each day. The sharply rising flood of immigrants, however, has set off cries of protest from West Germans.

Last week Chancellor Helmut Kohl announced measures designed to discourage immigration. Airline companies will risk fines of $1,000 if they fail to check the papers of passengers flying to West Germany. Refugees from "problem countries" in the Third World will have to apply for visas even if they plan to spend only a few days in the Federal Republic. And those awaiting a decision on their asylum requests may seek employment only after five years. "It is simply not possible," said the Chancellor, "for the Federal Republic to be a refuge for anyone in economic difficulty."

The new rules may help deter some of the 30,000 so-called economic refugees who are expected to step into the transit lounges at West German airports this year and request asylum. But the measures will not directly block those who fly to East Berlin and then make their way from there to the West. Iranians in Turkey report paying $1,000 for flights into East Berlin on Interflug, the East German airline, and those from South Asia pay even more to jet in on the Soviet carrier Aeroflot.

Last year, after thousands of Sri Lankans entered West Germany through East Berlin, Bonn granted East Germany some $293 million in credits, and the flow subsided. Even as the Chancellor hopes to slow the influx of non-Germans, he wants to do nothing to discourage East Germans from seeking freedom in the West.

The increasingly emotional immigration issue may be a factor in the campaigning for next January's national elections. The opposition Social Democrats have already reproached the government for "playing with people's lives." In response, Kohl's Christian Democrats wish to amend the constitution to admit refugees fleeing political persecution but not those simply seeking a better life in an affluent society. That would theoretically bar more than 80% of this year's newcomers. Enforcing such rules, however, may not be easy. As one airline executive in Frankfurt observed last week, "How can we tell the difference between acceptable political refugees and nonacceptable economic refugees? It just won't work."