Ministers discuss resettlement outside the UK, but ultimately the Government accepted UK passport holders expelled from Uganda. Minutes from a Cabinet Meeting held on 2nd November 1972. (CAB 128/50 f.19-20)
Transcript
The Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs said that all the remaining Asian holders of United Kingdom passports (UKPH) in Uganda would have left that country by 8 November, the terminal date prescribed by the Ugandan President, General Amin. Nearly all the stateless Asians, who had proved to be fewer in number than was originally supposed, should also have left by the same date.
The Prime Minister, summing up a brief discussion, said that the Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs should circulate a memorandum on the steps that might be taken to obtain a ruling, possibly by the International Court of Justice, that the Ugandan Government had acted illegally in expelling the Asians and in not allowing them to take their assets with them. Such a ruling might serve to discourage any other Governments which might be tempted to follow Uganda’s example. The discovery that an Asian UKPH, now in this country, was receiving £29 a week in relief had attracted widespread criticism. It was clear that UKPHs must be treated on the same basis as other individuals; and there might well be exceptional family circumstances in this particular instance which accounted for the large sums involved. Nevertheless, it would be helpful if the Secretary of State for Social Services would provide his colleagues with full details of the case.
The Cabinet -Took note, with approval, of the Prime Minister’s summing up of their discussion.