Applicants were marginalised, demoted or sacked from their jobs, excluded from universities and subjected to ostracism.[121] They faced the threat of having their children taken into state custody on the grounds that they were unfit to bring up children.[122] The law was used to punish those who continued to apply for emigration; over 10,000 applicants were arrested by the Stasi between the 1970s and 1989.[123]