HL Deb 24 March 1970 vol 308 cc1333-5
LORD O'HAGAN

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

[The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government why they are confident that there are no Kenyans of Asian origin who are British subjects and who are de facto stateless.]

LORD SHEPHERD

My Lords, this is a tendentious dsscription of the position of the Kenyan Asians. The Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 did not deprive them of their citizenship; it introduced a control on their rate of entry to the United Kingdom. This control is essential in the interests of the large numbers of Commonwealth immigrants already here, to whom we have as great an obligation as we have to those United Kingdom passport holders who have not yet been able to come here.

LORD O'HAGAN

My Lords, may I ask the noble Lord to specify the advantages of British citizenship at present enjoyed by the six Kenyan Asians who are in Ashford Prison, the seven in Can- terbury Prison, the four who are marooned in Brussels and the three who are marooned in Paris?

LORD SHEPHERD

My Lords, the noble Lord has dealt with a number of Kenyan Asians who are in prison for having entered this country without the necessary papers. Those who are in various airports are unable to come here because they do not possess those papers which they knew they required before they could be accepted into this country. As I indicated to the noble Lord on a previous occasion, in the main most of these young people are, in fact, jumping the queue of people who are in the same position as themselves: who wish to come to this country, and who are prepared to wait their turn to enter.

LORD O'HAGAN

My Lords, may I ask the noble Lord whether he discredits these words which are contained in the letter in The Times today: Asian holders of British passports now stranded in Kenya without any source of livelihood are in a pitiable plight. Does not the noble Lord feel that this state of affairs means that we ought to do something about these British subjects?

LORD SHEPHERD

My Lords, I am well aware of the difficulties of some of the Kenyan Asians in East Africa. We are seeking to meet their problem by the entry system that we have in mind which, as the noble Lord knows, takes into account the personal position of the applicant. We must bear in mind the million and a quarter coloured immigrants in this country, in particular their children and their grandchildren, and their relationship with the ordinary people of this country. As I said on the Second Reading of the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968, we are trying to obtain time to deal with the social problems.

LORD BEAUMONT OF WHITLEY

My Lords, is not a person who is not allowed into the only country of which he is a citizen de facto stateless? If he is not de facto stateless, what is the difference between his position and that of being de facto stateless?

LORD SHEPHERD

My Lords, the noble Lord will be aware of the statement made by my right honourable friend the Home Secretary. We do not intend to keep these people out of this country, but what we must do at this moment is to regulate their flow so that we can deal with the social problem that we all know exists in this country.

LORD LEATHERLAND

My Lords, may I ask whether my noble friend agrees with the recent statement made in Australia, to the effect that these people who are not able to come to Britain are not missing much?