Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968
| Published date | 01 July 1968 |
| Author | B. A. Hepple |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1968.tb01201.x |
| Date | 01 July 1968 |
STATUTES
COMMONWEALTH
IMMIORANTB
ACT
1968
FROM
a legal standpoint this much-publicised measure
1
has at
least three serious implications.
It
authorises the violation of the
duty imposed on the United Kingdom by international law to admit
its own citizens; it confers new discretionary powers on immigra-
tion officers without subjecting their decisions to the system of
appeals proposed by the Wilson Committee
";
and it obliges persons
who may have no intent to evade the immigration laws to prove
their innocence in certain circumstances.
Any citizen of the U.K. and Colonies holding
or
included in
R
current passport issued by the Government
of
the U.K.S was exempt
from the restrictions in the Commonwealth Immigrants Act
1962,
and therefore retained an automatic right
of
entry into the U.K.
Section
1
of
the Act of
1968
takes away this right, unless the citizen,
or
at least one of his parents
or
grandparents, (a) was born in the
U.K.,
or
(b)
is
or
was a person naturalised in the U.K.,
or
(c)
became
a
citizen of the
U.K.
and Colonies by virtue of being adopted
in the U.K.,
or
(d) became such a citizen by registration under the
British Nationality Acts in the U.K.
or
in a specified Common-
wealth country. As is well known, the purpose
of
this new restric-
tion is to slow down the entry into the U.K.
of
East African Asians
who, through choice
or
inadvertence, did not acquire citizenship of
the countries in which they reside within the required period after
independence and who hold U.K. citizenship and U.K. passports.
There are probably not more than
100,000
of these and not all of
them would wish to come to the U.K.' The Government could
have achieved its objective by the administrative act of withdrawing
the U.K. passports issued to these persons. Although this might
have been a shameful breach of international standards, no right
1
The political beckground is depcribed by
R.
Boston,
"
How the Immigrants
Act was passed,"
New Society
(No.
287),
March
'18,
1968,
pp.
41-52.
2
Report
of
the Committee
on
Immigration Appeals. Cmnd.
338'7,
noted by
the
present writer in (1968)
31
M.L.B.
310.
Brit]& missions overseas are instructed
to
endorse passport: issued
citizens
of
the
U.X.
and Colonies who fit into
the
category
of
of
a
particular dependent territor
as
having been issued
on
behalf
of
the
Government
of
that territory: dC.Deb.,
Vol.
759!
Written Answzrs, col.
234.
in
8.
1
(3)
of
the Act
of
1962
iti that most persona from non-independent territories
are not entitled to enter the
U.K.
as
of
right:
R.
v.
Secretar
of
State for the
Hone Department,
ex
.
Bhurosah
[1968]
1
Q.B.
26fi
(C.AJ.
4
E.
Burney in
I.R.R.
8ewsletter
(N.S.)
(1968)
2,
p.
116;
cf.
H.C.Deb.,
Vol.
759,
col.
1528.
For the background see:
Portrait
o
Q
M~nority:
Asians
in
A
frico
(London,
1963).
belongers
The effect
of
this practice and
the
definition
of
'
U.K.
passport
East
Africa
(ed.
D.
P.
Ghai) (Nairobi,
1965)
and
c;
.
Delf,
Asians
in
East
424
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