Statewatch bulletin nos 2 & 3). The government can, under the law, expel without trial or refuse entry to any foreign citizen it is Volume 5 no 5, September – October 1995 suspected will commit a crime including violence in order to attain a political purpose or if in the IMMIGRATION government's view it is necessary for "national security" reasons. There is only a hearing, not a trial, without the suspect or their lawyer being able to present evidence. SWEDEN Similarly, if the government is considering a case under Algerian "suspect" held the terrorist law the public prosecutor is not allowed to proceed with criminal proceedings. If a decision is The Swedish Minister of Justice, Laila Freivalds, has taken to expel a "suspect" there is no opportunity for decided to keep an Algerian citizen in custody despite them to defend themselves against the charge in a conclusive evidence that he was in Sweden at the time Swedish court. of the bombing of the Paris metro for which France is demanding his extradition. UK Abdelkrim Deneche, who has lived in Sweden since Betrayal by consensus 1991, has been held in custody by Swedish authorities because France says he is suspected of being involved The Tory government and Labour opposition united to in the bomb attack at the Paris Saint-Michel metro dismiss out of hand Hong Kong governor Chris Patten's station on 25 July. He has been held in custody since 22 call for the colony's 3 million British Dependent August. But now the results of an investigation by the Territories Citizens to be given the right of abode in the Swedish National Laboratory of Forensic Science UK after Hong Kong is handed back to the Chinese proved what he has always maintained - that he was in government in 1997. Patten indicated on a radio Sweden at the time of the bombing - and the forensic programme that no one expected a mass exodus to the tests now show that a signature was indeed his and was UK, but that the colony's British subjects needed an made at the time of the bombing. insurance policy against a Chinese crackdown. The only He was originally arrested by the Swedish Security politician to endorse his remarks was Paddy Ashdown, Police on suspicion of murder as a French police officer the leader of the Liberal Democrats, who said that such claimed he had seen the man close to the Metro at the a move was "the single act Britain could take that would time of the bombing. This information was given to the best ensure the survival of democracy" in Hong Kong. Swedish police by a French juge d'instruction, Jean- While Michael Howard's knee-jerk response was Francois Ricard, who made a special trip to Stockholm entirely predictable, Labour's eager agreement marked a on 18 August to arrange a quick extradition. On 24 hardening of attitudes since 1990, when the future of August a French magistrate issued an international Hong Kong's British citizens was last discussed. arrest warrant for him. Deneche told the police that The three million used to be citizens of the UK and three people could vouch for his presence in Sweden on colonies, which gave them the right to live in the UK the day of the bombing. This supported his statement until the 1971 Immigration Act restricted that right to that he had withdrawn money from a post office that citizens with a parental or grandparental connection day and had to produce documents and give his with the UK (they were then called "patrials"). The signature. It is this signature which was examined 1981 British Nationality Act revised citizenship in line forensically and established his alibi conclusively. with rights of entry, turning the UK and colonies Although the murder charge was dropped the Swedish citizens into Dependent Territories citizens, with rights Security Police then asked the government to expel him of entry to Hong Kong but not to Britain. Neil Kinnock under the Swedish anti-terrorist law (Lag 1991: 572 om vowed to repeal both Acts - 1971 and 1981 - when särskild utlänningskontroll). The Government decided Labour won an election. The British Nationality (Hong to keep him in custody for one month, and then another Kong) Act 1990 made provision for 50,000 of the most month. This gave the French authorities the chance to "valuable" Hong Kong citizens to become full citizens apply for extradition which has to be granted by the and take up residence in the UK, with their families. Swedish Supreme Court. The French Interior Minister Opposition to the Bill took the form of an unholy told Le Monde that "the Algerian military-security alliance between the right wing of the Tory party, led by police give us false information, in order to make us Norman Tebbit, who denounced it as too generous, and chase people they don't like". Labour, who said it was a betrayal of Hong Kong's The Swedish anti-terrorist laws have, in different people. Even in 1990 Labour would not commit itself to forms, been in force for more than 20 years and lack the returning full residence rights to all the three million, legal safeguards of the law on extradition. Under this and the only unequivocal commitment given by the law 37 foreign citizens have been expelled or put under party's home affairs spokesman Roy Hattersley, was to "municipal arrest" without trial (see Statewatch, vol 3 give the right of abode to the colony's 12,000 Indians. Now, even that limited commitment seems to have been forgotten. The Independent commented in an editorial measures to combat illegal immigration in August, that "few actions in the last 50 years have become this including more detention places, more chartering of country so poorly as our treatment of the people of aircraft for expulsion, where possible in conjunction Hong Kong ... The country has washed its hands of with other European countries, ID checks up to 20 km three million colonial subjects for fear of what might from internal frontiers and on motorways, pressure on happen to British politics if there were to be a new, sending countries to get better cooperation on large-scale immigration." readmission, including using economic aid as a lever. Observer 24.9.95; Independent 25.9.95. He set a target of 20,000 deportations a year. Meanwhile, an estimated half million north Africans No family rights have been subjected to identity checks on "public order" grounds after the bombing of the metro in July, and The High Court confirmed in August that husbands and around 3,000 people have been charged with illegal stay wives of British citizens are in a worse position than in France. spouses of European Union citizens when it comes to Observer 30.7.95; Independent 26.8.95. deportation. European Union law, which gives EU workers, students and others free movement rights to Romany child shot dead come and live in Britain, also guarantees the right of family members to join them. Someone married to an Border police opened fire on a convoy of four vehicles EU citizen can only be deported on very serious which they say failed to stop at passport control near grounds of public policy such as serious criminal Nice, shooting dead an 8-year-old child from the former offences. But marriage to a British citizen confers no Yugoslavia who was sleeping in the back of one of the such rights, and does not prevent deportation for cars. Close family members of the child were given a overstaying. Kulwinder Phull, an Indian citizen married one-month residence permit, but 37 other Romanies in to a British man, had asked the High Court to stop the the convoy were escorted out of France six days later, Home office deporting her for overstaying. Mrs Phull after the French refugee agency OFPRA rejected their had an unhappy first marriage and when she left her application for asylum. The reasoning was that the area violent husband she lost her right to stay in Britain. of the former Yugoslavia from which the convoy came Since then she has married again and has a British child, was not a war zone, and that as Gypsies the group were but the Home Office insists on deporting her. Her discriminated against not just there but in almost all lawyers argued that her British husband was a European countries of Europe. The justice ministry denied police citizen by virtue of the Maastricht treaty, and had the misconduct, saying that what they did was "normal", same rights to family unity with his wife as other EU but one police officer was later charged with citizens. The court disagreed, saying that Maastricht "unintentional homicide" after an inspector admitted added nothing to pre-existing rights and that EU law did that "inopportune shots were fired". not apply in a purely domestic situation. Their ruling Migration Newssheet September 1995. leaves several hundred couples and families in danger of forcible separation. Mrs Phull is expected to appeal Turkish Kurds in Germany and Austria against the ruling. R v Home Secretary ex p Phull, Independent 18.8.95. Hundreds of Kurds chanting "Freedom for Kurdistan" marched to German embassies in several European SPAIN countries in August, to protest German raids on the Ceuta: Kurds on hunger strike PKK, and many Kurds embarked on hunger strikes in solidarity with PKK members in Turkey who began a Twenty two Kurdish people went on hunger strike on hunger strike on 14 July. Two people have died on 25 August in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in northern hunger strike including a Kurdish mother of five living Africa.