LONDON, Dec 31: Britain’s conservative prime minister Edward Heath considered sending thousands of Asians expelled from Uganda in 1972 to one of London’s remaining colonial territories, official records showed on Wednesday.

The files, released to the Public Record Office under the 30-year rule, showed that Heath launched the hunt after Britain was forced to accept 25,000 Ugandan Asians expelled by the notorious dictator General Idi Amin.

A total of some 60,000 Ugandan Asians were expelled from Britain’s former east African colony. More than one half were taken in by the United States, Canada and Sweden.

Heath, fearing other African countries might follow the Ugandan example, was concerned that a large influx of immigrants into Britain would seriously harm race relations which at that time were already under severe strain.

On Dec 7, 1972, Heath told the Cabinet there could be “little hope of making headway with any aspect of the Government’s immigration policies until public opinion was reassured that the Government would not tolerate a second occasion of this kind.”

Consequently, it was decided to look for areas of resettlement “in overseas territories which we still controlled “ to which British passport holders could be diverted, if necessary.

“Such places would inevitably acquire something of the unhappy reputation of mere refugee camps; and the expenditure involved would be liable to be formidable. Nevertheless, the scope for action of this kind should perhaps be further explored,” Heath said according to the minutes of the meeting.

However, a quick survey by the Foreign Office found little enthusiasm for the idea.

Bermuda had housing shortages; employment prospects in the Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands were poor; in the Seychelles there was a “strong local prejudice” against East African Asians; and the Solomon Islanders had “xenophobic tendencies” while most of the spare land was “mountain or swamp”.

British Honduras was grudgingly prepared to accept 25 agriculturists “provided Her Majesty’s government paid for them”.

Only the Falkland Islands came up with a “surprise spontaneous offer” to accept displaced Ugandan Asians in any number.

Foreign Secretary Sir Alec Douglas Home noted on Dec 13 that, given such a lukewarm response, there was little chance of the plan succeeding.

“The prospect of finding an island asylum which could take significant numbers of Asians for settlement on areas at present undeveloped is remote,” he wrote.—AFP