INTERNATIONAL REMEMBER those screaming ner headlines a few weeks ago about the hordes of invading Asians threatening to sweep into the country on forged documents as fictitious dependants of immigrants already here? Remember how Enoch Powell just came to be in possession of a so-called report Dy D.F. Hawley, Assistant Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, detailing the impending invasion?
Well it was all a load of rubbish.
RACKET fused entry certificates They found that 55 of the people were entitled to enter Britain, yet appeals had been dismissed in cases and three were pending. contradiction to Hawley, who claimed that entry certificate officers had the onus of proof on them to justify refusal, Akram and Elliot found that the appeal hearings invariably took word of the authorities while treating that of applicants with susPIcIonAkram and Elliot justifiably argue system appears to be succeeding in keeping out those who have the right of entry . .. It is sur prising that a great deal of credence was attached to a report which, in Mr Hawley's own words, was "somewhat impressionistic and could not possibly be otherwise, considering that only 16 days, including travelling time, were spent visiting six posts on the subcontinent."
Refused Akram and Elliot found that 16 per cent of all applicants are refused, and in Bangladesh in the first ten months of 1974 the refusal rate was 42 per cent. During the first nine months of 1975only only per percent of those appealing were successful.
Photo: JOHN STURROCK (Report)
Even these bare figures fail to reveal the human misery being created by immigration laws. *The people we visited repeatedly told us that they were treated like "criminals" and in many cases allegations of "threaten ing behaviour" on the part of the interpreters and British intervie wing officers were made.
'A young girl who was seeking en try along with her mother, two old er sisters and a brother told us: was telling the truth but the office did not believe me and threatened to throw me out of the window if I did not tell the truth." Her other sister said she was threatened with being thrown into the Raval Dam Akram and Elliot found the birth certificates of these children to be genuine. The family first applied fo entry certificates on. 7 July 1971 They now face an 18 month wait before even being interviewed again.
Vivid And what of all those forged documents? If they do exist, it is because in many of the villages that dependants come from, documents are virtually non-existent. As the entry authorities demand documentary evidence the temptation is to get forged proof of actual truth The report vividly illustrates how the whole system of immigration legislation has made an institution out of festering racism-a racism which Hawley, Powell and the press have been ready to stir to the full. Meanwhile the elementary rights of people have been trampled in the mud and the whele system of controls has meant that black immigrants are regarded as some alien species if they do succeed in arriving in this country. All immigration con
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