WESTMINSTER — A Garden Grove family entered the second day of a hunger strike Tuesday outside the offices of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service here in a move to pressure officials to grant visas to relatives who escaped from Romania and are now living in Austria.
Ana and Pavel Sandru, Ana's mother and a cousin slept in their car Monday night. The four say they are determined to eat nothing until authorities reverse a decision to deny refugee status to a couple and their two children, who are now in a refugee camp.
INS Los Angeles District Director Robert Moscharak, who oversees the Westminster office, said the matter is in the hands of the U.S. Embassy in Austria, which made the denial, and that there is little his office can do to help.
"We don't issue the visas," he said.
The Garden Grove family has appealed to Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) for help, but that effort has met with little success so far.
Gheorghe and Florica Boldoni, their 10-year-old son Florin and 6-year-old daughter Gianina escaped from Romania in June, 1989, before the fall of dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu late last year. They are now in a refugee camp in Vienna. Gheorghe is Ana's brother and Florica is Pavel's sister.
The Boldonis first went to Yugoslavia, but they were captured by authorities there. Gheorghe spent two months in jail, Pavel Sandru said, after which the family was allowed to go to Vienna.
They applied for refugee status at the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, but finally, after an interview, officials told them in July this year that there was not sufficient evidence that they would face persecution if they returned to Romania. Family members here have been supporting them financially, the Sandrus said, and they say the decision leaves the Boldonis in financial and political limbo.
"They already risked their lives to escape, and now they want them to go back," Pavel Sandru said.
"They have been through so much stress already," Ana Sandru said. "They had to cross a river when they escaped, and they had their two children with them. The kids haven't been able to attend school since then."
According to the Sandrus, authorities at the refugee camp have told the Boldonis that they must leave the camp by the end of the month and that they should return to Romania. The Sandrus say the family cannot return to Romania even though Ceaucescu has been executed.
