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Beginning of British airlift initiative

The Ugandan Argus reported on the British airlift of Ugandan Asians as follows:

“British Asians airlift gets under way

The first ‘immigrant special’ flight to Britain of British Asians was due to leave last night. East African Airways chalked up a 11 p.m. depature [sic] time from Entebbe Airport for Boeing 707.

‘More than 180 immigrants aboard will be in Britain – around breakfast time tomorrow’, the airline said. The aircraft will land at Standsted near London.

An airline announcement said there would be 16 extra flights a week out of Uganda from now on to lift the thousands of Indians and Pakistanis who hold British nationality and who President Amin says must be gone by November 8.

More extra services, including some to carry Asians settling in Canada may be added later.

E.A.A. was operating last night’s first flight with an airliner hired from the British Firm, Donaldson International.

British consular officials in Uganda said they had cleared 7,500 Asians for entry to Britain while Uganda sources said the Government has processed at least 5,000 through extensive emigration formalities.

E.A.A. will carry 50 per cent of the immigrant traffic. The other half will be shared between British Overseas Airways and British Caledonian Airways.

‘I’ve been waiting for two years for an entry voucher to Britain and now at last, I’m going’, said one passenger on the flight.

Flight

Another said he would not believe he was going until the flight was airborne, adding as an explanation: ‘There’s been so much confusion’.

A 44-year old former oil company employee with his wife and three sons, also on the flight added that he had first been told it was leaving on Saturday. He has cabled relatives in Cardiff to meet him.

The airlines are charging immigrants 2000/- a head for the one-way economy class flight to Britain aboard the ‘supplemental’ services. Children under two years old are being charged 10 per cent of the fare.

The normal economy class fare to Britain is about £150.

To handle the exodus, E.A.A. has opened a special temporary terminal at Entebbe Airport.

B.O.A.C. is expected to operate its first immigrant flight today.

Radio Uganda told Asians holding entry vouchers to Britain with the necessary clearance to report to a joint airlines ticket office to book flight.

In Britain, some British Conservatives thundered against the impending influx of Asians from Uganda at a London rally beseiged by demonstrators yelling, ‘fascist pigs’.

A strong force of police surrounded the central hall, near Britain’s Houses of Parliament, to protect the 2,000-strong rally. It was staged by the Monday Club, a rightwing section of the ruling Conservative Party.

About 500 members of the international socialist movement staged an hour-long demonstration outside the hall.

In a prepared address a Conservative MP Ronald Bell, claimed that the British Government was letting the Asians go there in defiance of public opinion. He declared:

‘There is a feeling of desperation that democracy no longer works in Britain.’

Mr Bell went on: ‘By the fashionable standards of the Liberal left, four-fifths of the British people are extremists.’

Mr Bell said that the prejudice held against Asians by African governments was a real one – ‘that they remain a community apart, keeping their emotional ties in India and remitting their money there or somewhere else outside.'”

Source: ‘British Asians airlift gets under way’, Ugandan Argus, 18 September 1972, p. 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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