HC Deb 01 December 1959 vol 614 cc1006-11
Mr. Dugdale (by Private Notice)

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will give instructions that political refugees from the French Cameroons be no longer sent back from the British Cameroons.

The Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies (Mr. Julian Amery)

Certain persons have been declared prohibited immigrants by the Governor-General of Nigeria in accordance with Nigerian legislation. In accordance with this legislation, if they are found in the British Cameroons they are escorted to the border and warned not to return. Others have been deported in accordance with court orders made after their conviction for offences in Nigeria or the British Cameroons.

Mr. Dugdale

Will the hon. Gentleman say what appeal lies against any person who is said to be fomenting a revolution against the French Cameroons, and who claims to be a genuine political refugee?

Mr. Amery

In the case of those who have been convicted of an offence, the ordinary appeal procedure lies. In the case of alleged prohibited immigrants, there is a right of appeal to a magistrate to establish whether or not they are prohibited immigrants.

Mr. Callaghan

Further to that question—[HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."] Men's lives are at stake here—can the hon. Gentleman say how far the list of prohibited immigrants is known and made public in the Cameroons? Would it not be a travesty of our standards of justice if this list were not made known, and an immigrant who gave himself up to the British authorities were then immediately deported because he had not hitherto known that his name was on such a list?

Mr. Amery

No, Sir, I do not think so. I think that the ordinary procedure in all countries is that there are lists of persons who are regarded as undesirable to admit into the country concerned. We probably have one in this country—I do not know about my own Department, but I understand that that is the case—but when a person who is on such a list appears on the frontier, or has entered illegally, he renders himself liable to deportation.

Mr. Callaghan

But in these peculiar circumstances, is the list made public, so that those who may become political refugees will know that it is of no use their presenting themselves on the border?

Mr. Amery

It is generally known that the frontier is not open to those who are carrying on subversive activities on the other side of the border. As far as I am aware, the list is not published.

Sir G. Nicholson

There is something important in this state of affairs, namely, the right of political refugees to take their liberty in British territory. Can my hon. Friend say whether these lists are prepared at the instigation of a foreign Power, or on what basis immigration is prohibited?

Mr. Amery

The House, and the country as a whole, are, naturally, very sensitive to any question that concerns the hospitality accorded to refugees. One of the difficult problems that has been in existence on this border is not that of people coming to take refuge in the British Cameroons from the French Cameroons, but of people establishing, as it were, bases of operation in the British Cameroons from which to operate back into the French Cameroons.

As the House knows, the Nigerian Federal Government are responsible for the administration of the British Cameroons under the United Nations Trusteeship arrangement. We are the mandatory Power, but it is the view of the United Nations that the territory should be administered as an integral part of Nigeria, and the legislation of the Nigerian Federal Government is aimed primarily at preventing the British Cameroons being used as a base for operations against the neighbouring French Cameroons, which, as the House knows, become independent on 1st January.

Sir G. Nicholson

My hon. Friend has not answered by question. Is this list drawn up at the instigation of an extraneous Administration?

Mr. Amery

No, Sir. It is drawn up by our own security services. As I am sure my hon. Friend knows, the U.P.C. Party, which is carrying on armed activity on the French side of the border, is a proscribed party in the British Cameroons. We know a great deal about it, and about its leaders and leading personalities. It is on the strength of the information available to the security services in the British Cameroons that the list is drawn up.

Mr. Paget

Is the Under-Secretary aware that at the time of the Orsini case, which was an attempt to murder Emperor Napoleon III, the question of using this country as a base for conspiracy against a foreign country was fully dealt with, and that, whilst action could be taken then, the right of asylum in this country was most carefully preserved; and that an arrangement whereby a foreign country's subversives are regarded as illegal immigrants when they seek asylum with us is contrary to the whole tradition of this country?

Mr. Amery

I do not think that this situation is strictly comparable with that in England in the last century. The border is very thinly policed, and runs through very tangled, rough country. There is a good deal of inter-penetration from one side to the other, and the Nigerian Federal Government have—I think very rightly—been disturbed at the possibility that the influx of U.P.C. members from the French Cameroons might lead to widespread trouble in the British Cameroons, for which the Nigerian Federal Government are responsible.

Mr. Braine

Would my hon. Friend give an assurance to the House that the allegations that have appeared in the The Guardian today, and which have been repeated on the floor of the House, will be investigated for the sake not only of the refugees who place themselves under our protection, but of our good name? But will he also make plain that British-administered territory cannot be made the base of armed incursions into the neighbouring territories of Africa? Would he not agree that, in view of the French Cameroons becoming independent on 1st January, that is the way to chaos in Africa?

Mr. Amery

I would entirely agree with what my hon. Friend has just said, and would very gladly investigate any individual case that comes to the attention of any right hon. or hon. Member of the House which seems in any way to have been unfairly dealt with under the regulations. The House will be aware that a number of refugees coming from the French Cameroons have been allowed to leave, when they have been genuine political refugees, for the Sudan and Egypt. The cases of the two gentlemen mentioned in The Guardian article this morning are cases in point. They took refuge in the British Cameroons. They expressed the desire not to return to the French Cameroons and went to the Sudan, and afterwards to Egypt.

Mr. Callaghan

It is not those people, but the people on the list. Is it a fact that people whose names appear on this list, which may or may not be made public, are automatically returned to the French authorities if found in the British Cameroons, irrespective of what they may be doing? If they are using the British Cameroons as a base for subversive action, then action should, perhaps, be taken against them, but what the House would find repugnant would be if men were automatically returned to the French authorities merely because they appeared on a list prepared by us presumably at someone else's instigation. Will the Under-Secretary make the position clear and, if he cannot make it clear now, will he make a further statement to the House?

Mr. Amery

The list in not prepared at someone else's instigation, but at the instigation of the Nigerian Federal Government's security services. We are very anxious that there should not be an extension to the British Cameroons of the trouble taking place in the French Cameroons. The Nigerian security services have exact and detailed information about the U.P.C., and are at pains to see that the activities going on on the other side of the border are not extended to our side of the border. What was the other part of the hon. Gentleman's question?

Mr. Callaghan

About automatic deportation.

Mr. Amery

Yes; I should like to correct the hon. Gentleman on one point. There is no question of people being handed over to the French authorities. They are put across the border and, as I have said, that border is very rough and tangled. It is not a border like the borders in Europe which we know, with customs posts, and so on. They are pushed across the border from the village in which they are apprehended.

Mr. Dugdale

The Under-Secretary has said that if any hon. Member will give him a definite case, he will take action. Is he aware that if these men are sent across the border they may well be imprisoned or, indeed, killed, before any action can be taken at all? Is it not important that we should take action before that happens?

Mr. Amery

All I said, in an attempt to help the House, was that if there were any individual cases where these regulations had been wrongfully applied I would, naturally, be very glad, as would my right hon. Friend, to take them up with the Nigerian Federal Government. It is a matter for the Nigerian Federal Government who are the administering Power, in the technical sense, although we are in the political sense. Nigeria becomes independent next year, so this is a matter primarily for the Nigerian Federal authorities.

Sir G. Nicholson

rose—

Mr. Speaker

Order, there is no Question before the House.