Ministers discuss resettlement outside the UK, but ultimately the Government accepted UK passport holders expelled from Uganda. Minutes from a Cabinet Meeting held on 8th August 1972. (CAB 128/50 f.3)
Transcript
Minutes of Cabinet Meeting, 8 August 1972
Secret
The Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary said that the President of Uganda, General Amin, had announced that all Asian holders of British passports in Uganda would be required to leave the country within three months and that he looked to us thereafter to assume responsibility for them. Details of this decision were not yet available; nor could we be certain about its motivation. But General Amin’s political standing in Uganda had recently declined as a result of tribal disputes; and it seemed probable that he had taken this action in an attempt to regain popular support. The number of individuals involved could not be assessed with accuracy; but preliminary estimates suggested that there might be about 57,000 British passport holders in Uganda. Moreover, there were some 55,000 and 20,000 others in Kenya and Tanzania respectively, where the governments were known to resent their presence and might now follow the example of President Amin by having them removed. The British High Commissioner in Kampala had been instructed to seek an urgent interview with President Amin in order to emphasis to him the inhumanity of his intended action, the damage which it would inflict on the Ugandan economy and the international condemnation which it was likely to attract. It would help the High Commissioner if he were able to reinforce his representations with a personal message from the Prime Minister. But, since it seemed unlikely that President Amin would modify his decision, an interdepartmental body had been established in order to consider, on the advice of the Law Officers, the various courses of action open to us. In the last resort we could not disclaim responsibility for British passport holders, even if we so wished; nor would public opinion in the countries most closely involved accept an attempt to do so. Nevertheless, it might be necessary to adopt a more restrictive attitude towards the entry of British passport holders into the United Kingdom, even if we left unimpaired the right of dependants to join heads of households, which we had always respected. For example, although entry vouchers were currently limited to 3,500 a year, some 14,000 individuals were in fact admitted to this country.