BBC REPORT 1968: More Kenyan
Asians flee to Britain
Another 96 Indians and Pakistanis
from Kenya have arrived in Britain today, the latest in a growing exodus of
Kenyan Asians fleeing from laws which prevent them making a living.
The party included
nine children under two, and all flew in on cut-price one-way tickets costing
about £60 - less than half the normal single fare.
Omar Sharmar, an
Indian who was forced to close his haulage business in Mombasa when the
government refused to grant him a licence, estimates he has lost £2,000.
“At the present rate
this (migration) will continue for at least a year, if not more.” Kenyan
airline official.
"Only Kenyan
citizens are being allowed work permits," he said. "I was forced to
sell my fleet of lorries and come to Britain to look for a new life."
An airline official
in Nairobi estimated that the charter flights had taken between 1,200 and 1,500
Kenyan Asians in to Britain.
"We did find
some difficulty filling the planes until last week," he said.
"But in the last
two or three days that attitude has changed, and there doesn't seem to be any
difficulty at all now. At the present rate I think this will continue for at
least a year, if not more."
Immigration laws in
Kenya are becoming increasingly draconian. Foreigners can only hold a job until
a Kenyan national can be found to replace them: and more and more cities,
including Nairobi, are demanding that the government bans non-Kenyans from
owning a shop or trading in municipal markets.
If the Kenyan
government caves in to such demands, the result is likely to be chaos, as most
shops are owned by foreigners, and not enough citizens have the capital or
knowledge to run small businesses.
Already, the tens of
thousands of Asians, who have until now dominated commerce, industry and most
key jobs in the country, are finding their lives made impossible.
Although most turned
down the chance to take Kenyan nationality when it was offered to them, more
than 100,000 did take up the chance to get British passports.
They are now arriving at the rate of more than 1,000 a month to start a new life in the UK, a country which most have never seen.
The mass immigration of thousands of
Kenyan Asians caused a major crisis for the UK government of Prime Minister
Harold Wilson.
The
Home Secretary, James Callaghan, rushed through new legislation aimed
specifically at curbing the flow of immigrants from East Africa.
The
1968 Commonwealth Immigration Act introduced a requirement to demonstrate a
"close connection" with the UK.
There
were deep cabinet splits over the legislation: cabinet papers have since quoted
the then Commonwealth Secretary, George Thomson, saying that "to pass such
legislation would be wrong in principle, clearly discrimination on the grounds
of colour, and contrary to everything we stand for."
The
criticisms, as well as growing tension on the issue provoked by Conservative MP
Enoch Powell's infamous "Rivers of Blood" speech in April 1968,
brought the issue of immigration to the fore, and ultimately led to the Race
Relations Act of 1976.
There
are currently about 70,000 Indians in Kenya - about 0.25% of the population.
Many have been there for four generations, yet they remain politically
powerless, and there is still pressure in some quarters to expel them from the
country altogether.
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