Geoffrey Bindman QC recalls UK immigration in the 1960s
A report in The Guardian on 31 March 2012 headed “Anger over plan to x-ray young asylum seekers to check age” brought back memories of immigration and citizenship law in the 1960s. Until the case which I describe later, x-rays of young would-be immigrants from the Indian sub-continent were routinely performed. A practice condemned then should not be revived.
Restricted entry
Entry from the Commonwealth was first restricted by the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 (CIA 1962). No formal legal mechanism for challenging refusals of entry at airports existed. I got used to being summoned day and night to Heathrow by distraught family members whose loved ones were about to be returned to the sub-continent or East Africa. Children under 16 of those already settled in the UK were entitled to be admitted. CIA 1962 required the young person to satisfy the immigration officer that he or she was eligible. The absence of birth registration in parts of the sub-continent made this difficult.
The decision
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