Ministers discuss resettlement outside the UK, but ultimately the Government accepted UK passport holders expelled from Uganda. Minutes from a Cabinet Meeting held on 7th September 1972. (CAB 128/50 f.7)
Transcript
The Prime Minister said that, while the Government’s ultimate obligation to admit to the United Kingdom UKPH who were expelled from their place of residence and had no other place of refuge was not in question, the prospect of a large and early influx of Asians posed a number of serious social and political problems. There were strong arguments for diverting as many as possible to third countries and for seeking to phase the arrival of any considerable numbers in the United Kingdom. But there was increasing evidence of President Amin’s irrational and unpredictable temperament; and it was impossible to exclude the possibility that the situation might develop in such a way as to create a real threat to the lives not only of Asian UKPH but also of the 7,000 individuals with a close personal or ancestral link with the United Kingdom (“belongers”).
The Attorney General informed the Cabinet that the individuals whom the Ugandan Government proposed to expel were citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies. The grant of a passport by the United Kingdom Government did not in itself confer citizenship; but it was evidence that the Government accepted the holder as one of its citizens. Under international law a State had a duty to other States to accept within its territory those of its nationals who were expelled from their country of residence and were not admitted to any other country. This international obligation applied not-withstanding the controls imposed by our domestic immigration laws upon the entry of citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies who had no direct personal or ancestral link with the United Kingdom. The Commonwealth Immigration Act, 1968, had for the first time subjected to those controls Asians in East Africa holding passports issued by the United Kingdom Government; but the Labour Home Secretary at the time, Mr James Callaghan, had publicly acknowledged an obligation to receive such individuals if they were expelled with no prospect of any alternative refuge.