This document shows a debate in the House of Commons about the Government’s handling of the Ugandan Asians expulsion on 6 December 1972. Criticism by Mr Arthur Lewis MP (West Ham, North). (T353/27 f.5)
Transcript
I shall approach the question on an entirely different tack from the Hon. Gentleman’s. I accuse the Government of acting deliberately to exacerbate and create problems that they could have avoided. They knew, as we all did, that the Ugandan problem was likely to occur, though it is true that they did not know the exact date. They did nothing at all to prepare for the difficulties that they knew would occur. If they did not know about them, they should have known.
If the Government did not take action when they could and should have done, they are guilty of exacerbating the situation. It is true that they appealed to the Ugandan Asians not to go to the red areas. What a ludicrous and farcical approach! Here are poor, defenceless Asians coming here from Uganda, and the Government appeal to them not to go where their friends and relatives are. Does not everyone know that the first thing someone in trouble will do is to go to where his friends and relatives are?
I can appreciate the Government’s appealing to the Ugandan Asians not to go to the red areas , but I should have thought they would have asked the people in the red areas to meet them to discuss their present problems and the problems that were likely to arise when, as was inevitable, these Asians moved into them. But the Government did not do that.