HC Deb 17 June 1969 vol 785 cc406-12

Question proposed, That the Clause stand part of the Bill.

10.59 p.m.

Mr. John Biggs-Davison (Chigwell)

The Clause which we are now asked to make part of the Bill substitutes the new style of Tanzania for the terms "Tanganyika" and "Zanzibar" in the list of Commonwealth countries contained in the British Nationality Act, 1948, and subsection (3) in particular makes provision in respect of the persons who, being British-protected persons by virtue of their connections with Tanganyika immediately before Tanganyika became independent, did not become citizens of Tanganyika.

I should like to draw the attention of the Committee to a former British-protected person who has deserved well of Zanzibar and of Britain. He is very much affected by these nationality provisions. I refer to Ahmed Seif Kharusi, now resident in Southsea, a teacher who trained under Professor Hollingsworth and served for five years in the education department of Zanzibar. He was highly respected and has a cousin who was a rural district commissioner under the old order.

Mr. Kharusi was a member of the national party, and of its executive, and was on the editorial board of the party newspaper, "Umma". On the eve of the revolution in 1964, he was summoned by the commissioner of police, who was British, to take part in the defence of Malindi police station. Armed with a .22 rifle, he helped to fight back insurgents armed with automatic weapons. The battle continued all day. Eventually, 16 Zanzibaris, including Mr. Kharusi, escaped in the Sultan's yacht.

Mr. Kharusi now wishes to acquire British nationality. He has applied to the Home Office and has received an extraordinary communication, over an indecipherable signature, dated 2nd June. It said: … possession of an old British passport indicating birth in Zanzibar would normally be prima facie evidence that the holder was a citizen of Tanzania, since we understand that, in general, persons who were born in Zanzibar automatically became citizens of Tanzania. However, proviso (i) to paragraph 2(1) of the 4th Schedule of the Tanzanian Citizenship Decree of 3rd November, 1964, specifically excludes from citizenship of Tanzania 'any person who, prior to Union Day, had been deprived of his status as a Zanzibar subject, or deported or exiled from Zanzibar.' In view of your close association"— This is one of the most extraordinary sentences to emanate from a Government Department— with the former Sultan of Zanzibar, we need to see confirmation from the Tanzanian authorities that you are currently regarded by them as a citizen of Tanzania before we can proceed with your application. It is as though, in the 1920's, a Russian exile had taken part in the civil war on behalf of the Czar against the Bolsheviks, and then sought the nationality of this country, as some did, only to be required to get confirmation from the Bolsheviks that he was regarded by them as a Russian, or, in the 1930's, as if a refugee from the Nazi terror, seeking our citizenship, as many did, was directed by the Home Office to seek confirmation from the Third Reich that they regarded him as a German.

I need not say more. Probably insufficient thought was given to the letter sent to Mr. Kharusi. Probably the Home Office is not familiar with what has happened in Tanganyika and Zanzibar and what is now happening in the republic known as Tanzania. I am grateful to the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, to whom I have given notice of this case, for listening to me, and I know that he will want to put this right. I cannot imagine a worthier applicant for British nationality than Mr. Kharusi.

I want also to refer to the case of Mr. Yahya Alawi, and other former officials to whom reference was made on Second Reading, who were not covered by the Public Officers' Agreement of 1965 and who have been denied their due by the Tanzanian Government. If it is not in the Government's power to right this wrong, or to make the ad hoc arrangement asked for by my hon. Friend the Member for Essex, South-East (Mr. Braine) I hope that my suggestion can be adopted and every effort made by the appropriate Departments to see that those who can still do useful work should have the opportunity of doing it.

11.5 p.m.

Mr. Bernard Braine (Essex, South-East)

As the Under-Secretary of State said on Second Reading, this is strictly speaking a technical Bill which is limited to the effects on British law which flow from the creation of the independent State of Tanzania. This, of course, is a somewhat technical Clause. As my hon. Friends made plain then and as my hon. Friend the Member for Chigwell (Mr. Biggs-Davison) has just made plain now, when these technical provisions are related to human beings the story looms somewhat differently.

In any event, the Bill and this Clause in particular does not absolve any of us from responsibility for what flows from the recognition of the fact of independence. The United Kingdom Parliament once had responsibilities for the peoples of Tanganyika and Zanzibar. One was a mandated territory entrusted to us after the First World War, and the other was a Protected State whose ruler was our friend and ally. The sceptre may have passed from our hands; political responsibility may no longer be ours; we willingly conceded independence: but we cannot be indifferent to the consequences of our actions even in a single case, or, rather, the two cases which have been cited by my hon. Friend.

This Clause, for example, gives Tanzanians the status of British subjects and Commonwealth citizens under United Kingdom law, and it will confer upon them under our law the status enjoyed by all Commonwealth citizens and, indeed, by Tanganyikans and Zanzibaris before independence.

Hon. Members on both sides of the House said some rather caustic things about the regime in Zanzibar. I am not at all sure that we should be extending any privileges under British law to the oppressive regime of that part of Tanzania. I am not at all sure if what was Tanganyika continues to grow and prosper, as everybody in this House must wish it to do, under the benign influence of President Nyerere, this strange union with Zanzibar will continue.

If we are to accept for the time being that it is to continue, then it would be sensible to take a generous view, but at the very least we should be concerned, before passing this Clause, about those unfortunate British subjects whose hopes and careers were blighted by the actions of the Zanzibar authorities. I make no comment on the first of the cases cited by my hon. Friend the member for Chigwell—he made a strong case which will, I hope be answered by the Under-Secretary of State—but my hon. Friend and I on Second Reading also raised the case of Mr. Yahya Alawi, a Member of the Order of the British Empire, who, after 36 years of distinguished service in Zanzibar, was driven out by the régime, is not being paid his pension, and is living now in this country on National Assistance. I described that on Second Reading as a disgrace, and a disgrace it is.

This cannot be the only case of the sort, and correspondence I have had with the Ministry of Overseas Development suggests that there are others. Therefore, I want to know what action has been taken, before bringing the Bill to this House, to get justice for this man and others like him?

I do not apologise, even at this late hour, for referring to this case, because the House of Commons has always been tender about the rights of individuals. When I raised this case with the Government I was told by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Overseas Development, the hon. Member for East Ham, South (Mr. Oram) in connection with Mr. Alawi's right to press that his claim be treated in the same way as that of other pensioners: My view is that Mr. Alawi's representations to the Tanzanian authorities which draw their specific attention to those other pensioners cannot be expected to result in the payment by Tanzania of his own pension, though he may be placing the continued payment of those pensions in jeopardy. That was a warning that if this man raised his case with the Tanzanian Government who are responsible for his pension, he might not only not recover his own pension, but put in jeopardy the pensions of others. It is a disgraceful state of affairs that no arrangement has been made by the two Governments concerned, before bringing this technical Bill forward, to see that justice is done to a man who served the Crown faithfully for 36 years, who was awarded the M.B.E. by the Sovereign, and was then driven out by a revolution which took place after we had conceded independence.

We raised this matter on Second Reading in the hope that the Minister would, between then and now, indicate that something would be done in this case. If the Tanzanian authorities, and not ourselves, are responsible, as I understand they are, for his pension, why have we not insisted that it be paid? We handed Zanzibar over to independence which was followed by brutal repression. Do not we have a moral duty to make some ad hoc provision for this unfortunate man and others like him? I hope that the Minister will give an assurance that the matter is being looked into and that a solution will be found.

The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Maurice Foley)

To answer, first, the latter point raised by the hon. Member for Essex, South-East (Mr. Braine), about Mr. Alawi, I said on Second Reading—when the hon. Gentleman, the hon. Member for Chigwell (Mr. Biggs-Davison) and others mentioned unfortunate cases that had arisen as the result of a situation which was outside the control of those concerned and of which they were victims—that I would look into the matter.

I have today written to both hon. Members indicating that we are aware of this case. Her Majesty's Government have made representations to the Tanzanian Government, who have the responsibility in this matter. The Committee will appreciate that this is an issue primarily for my right hon. Friend the Minister of Overseas Development. I will ensure that his attention is drawn to the feelings which have been expressed again tonight on this matter.

I sympathise with the indignation expressed by the hon. Member for Chigwell in connection with the first case that he raised. I think that I met and knew the gentleman to whom he referred in the pre-independence days in Zanzibar. He will appreciate that this is primarily a matter for my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary. However, I will recall, for the benefit of the Committee, some of the facts and something of the dilemma in which one is placed in this matter.

This gentleman came to Britain as a refugee after the revolution in January, 1964. He has resided here for the statutory qualifying period of residence of five years and has applied for registration as a United Kingdom citizen. If he is a British subject he is entitled to that registration. However, if he is an alien he does not enjoy this entitlement but must apply for naturalisation as a United Kingdom citizen, a matter which comes within the discretion of the Home Secretary.

11.15 p.m.

The present difficulty arises from Mr. Kharusi's inability so far to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Home Office that he is a British subject. I repeat what I said on Second Reading. All people resident in Zanzibar were the sultan's subjects and at the time of Zanzibar's independence they became Zanzibari citizens. Zanzibari citizens at the time of the amalgamation and union were citizens of Zanzibar and exchanged that citizenship for citizenship of the United Republic. It is not clear whether Mr. Kharusi ever became a citizen of the United Republic. If he did not he is stateless and not entitled to registration and therefore we must proceed through the course of naturalisation. If he became a citizen of the United Republic and has been resident here he can go through the normal process of being registered after five years as a British subject.

What is in doubt is his exact status and he has been asked to furnish evidence of what his status is. If the hon. Member feels that any injustice is being done I will draw the attention of my right hon. Friend to this case and ask him to look at it again. I cannot forecast what his attitude will be, but the dilemma is clear. At the time of Zanzibar's independence, this gentleman became a Zanzibari citizen. Whether on the union of the two countries he became a citizen of the United Republic we do not know, nor whether his citizenship was taken from him in the post-revolution period. Until we can determine one or the other, we shall not know whether he should be registered as a British subject or be naturalised.

Mr. Braine

By definition surely he must have been a British-protected person before Zanzibar independence. If so, on independence, when he became a Zanzibari citizen, would he not have become a Commonwealth citizen? Why should there be difficulty about his status even if he was driven out by the revolution?

Mr. Foley

There is a distinction which is reflected in the Bill, between people who resided in Tanganyika and people who resided in Zanzibar. Those who resided in Tanganyika were British protected persons either by birth or relationship. Those who resided in Zanzibar were the subjects of the sultan; they were not British protected persons. At the time of Zanzibar's independence all the sultan's subjects became Zanzibar citizens. At the time of the revolution by a decree passed by the Revolutionary Council, certain people were deprived of this citizenship and were made stateless. The problem is to try to define in exactly what category this gentleman comes to determine whether we proceed on the path of naturalisation for an alien or registration as a British subject.

Mr. Biggs-Davison

I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman's sympathetic attitude towards this case. I and the Committee are also obliged for his statement of the legal dilemma, but he will appreciate knowing the subject we are discussing, which is probably unknown to the Home Office, what a shock must have been occasioned to this gentleman on receiving a letter of this kind and being directed to apply to the authorities there for certification as to his citizenship. I am much obliged to the hon. Gentleman for his sympathy with my indignation.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clauses 2 to 7 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

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