Refuseniks?

[d000hg]

Saw this on the BB News live page (can't figure how to get a link)

According to the Associated Press News Agency and the Marshall Project - a non-profit news organisation which reports on the US criminal justice system - the figure of refuseniks hovers around 50%. They asked correctional officers, doctors working inside prisons and public health officials for their reasons - and the answers they got ranged from fear of side effects to conspiracy theories.

Is this a normal word, because I would have read it as a pejorative term.

[SueEllen]

Comes up in the Oxford dictionary.

[d000hg]

Comes up in the Oxford dictionary.

But not with a definition that matches the context. And strong informal Jewish links (which I never knew about)

[BR14]

I thought they were russian binmen/women/whatevers

[ladymuck]

I thought they were russian binmen/women/whatevers

[Mordac]

Comes up in the Oxford dictionary.

It refers to Soviet Jews who were prevented from travelling/emigrating from the USSR to Israel, c.1970's/80's.

[ladymuck]

The wonderful evoluton of language. Is it acceptable to use that word in a newer context? Who knows!

[AtW]

The wonderful evoluton of language. Is it acceptable to use that word in a newer context? Who knows!

Refusing to use it would be in the spirit of the word

[d000hg]

The wonderful evoluton of language. Is it acceptable to use that word in a newer context? Who knows!

You wouldn't expect the BBC to be using a word in a manner not in the dictionary in a news story.