Extract from Martin Adeney and Michael Lake reporting for The Guardian:

“In the chilly drizzle at Stansted the Asians managed to retain even more composure than the officials or the squads of milling journalists and cameramen there to meet them. They queued patiently. No one burst into tears except the youngest children. They stoically approved of English weather and accepted the food offered–tea, cheese and apricot jam sandwiches, and fruit cake–rejecting only the tinned salmon.

Common to almost all the accounts of their departure from Kampala were stories of searches, if not at gunpoint, with guns being threatened, during the 13 miles to Entebbe Airport.

Some said there were as many as 11 separate checks. Almost all lost money and valuables. One retired civil servant said a £250 watch had been taken from him. Others lost cameras, bangles, and even rings from their fingers.”

Source: Adeney & Lake, ‘Asian Refugees Reach First Base’, in The Guardian, 19 September 1972