§ 19. Mr. Roseasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will seek restitution and compensation for the confiscation of property of all those British nationals of whatever origin summarily expelled from Uganda.
§ Mr. Hugh Jenkinsasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has made to the Ugandan Government to treat Asians with British passports with humanity and to allow them to remove from Uganda their personal property and possessions or its equivalent value.
164W
§ Sir Alec Douglas-HomeGeneral Amin, in a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, has said that it is not Uganda's intention to confiscate the assets of those expelled. If it is clear after 8th November that satisfactory arrangements for compensation are not being made, I will certainly take this up with the Uganda Government.
§ Mr. Clinton Davisasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will seek to convene a meeting of members of the Commonwealth in order to discuss the plight of Ugandan Asians and with a view to dismissing Uganda from the Commonwealth.
§ Sir Alec Douglas-HomeI would refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave earlier today to my hon. Friend the Member for Cheadle (Mr. Normanton).
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will give the reasons for the change in the Government's declared policy of only assisting those Ugandan Asians who can produce British passports to include stateless Asians and others without British passports; how many additional immigrants will be admitted under this new arrangement; and whether all stateless persons with or without British passports will now be able to claim admission into Great Britain.
§ Sir Alec Douglas-HomeThere has been no change of policy. As my right hon. Friend, the Home Secretary, said on 18th October, Her Majesty's Government have made it clear that they do not accept responsibility for stateless Asians in Uganda. The Government have decided that passports may be granted to Asians who had acquired Ugandan citizenship but whose renunciation of United Kingdom citizenship was registered too late for them to retain Ugandan citizenship. It is expected that up to 600 heads of families will be entitled to apply for United Kingdom passports under this arrangement.
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth 165W Affairs whether he can give an assurance that the rate he is now applying regarding the admission into Great Britain of Ugandan Asians who failed to apply, or wrongly applied, for their British passports, and therefore became stateless persons or non-British citizens, will apply to all stateless persons or others in a similar situation now, or in the future, so far as these Ugandan citizens are concerned.
§ Sir Alec Douglas-HomeThe Ugandan Asians who acquired Ugandan citizenship after independence and lost it because they failed effectively to renounce their United Kingdom citizenship in time, did not lose their United Kingdom citizenship. They are not stateless, and the procedures regulating their admission into the United Kingdom are not therefore relevant to those governing the admission of stateless persons. My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary made it clear in his statement on 18th October that we cannot and do not intend to admit any stateless Asians from Uganda.—[Vol. 843, c. 261–75.]
§ Sir D. Walker-Smithasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps are being taken, or proposed to be taken, to recoup from Uganda the expenses to which Great Britain has been, is being, and will be put by reason of the expulsion of Ugandan Asians and their reception in Great Britain.
§ Sir Alec Douglas-HomeI would refer my right hon. and learned Friend to the answer which my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary gave to his supplementary question on 18th October.—[Vol. 843, c. 261–75.]