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Green light to pass laws (1)

01 January 1991

Green light to pass laws
artdoc May=1993

On 7 April the Court of Appeal declared that housing authorities
should make it their business to report the presence of illegal
immigrants to the Home Office. They reversed the decision of the
High Court that immigration controls were not the function of
local authorities.
The case was brought by Tower Hamlets council, in east London,
the subject of non-discrimination notices issued by the
Commission for Racial Equality over its racist allocation
policies. It objected to guidance sent to authorities by the
Department of the Environment on housing homeless families, which
said that everyone admitted to the country was entitled to equal
treatment under the law, and that `authorities should remember
to treat as confidential information received on an applicant's
immigration status'. These statements, said the Court of Appeal,
were `misleading and wrong'; `it would be an affront to common
sense if those who steal into the country by subterfuge were then
housed at public expense', said Master of the Rolls Lord
Donaldson. The judgment marks a significant encroachment of Home
Office functions into local government, which will be further
entrenched by the housing provisions of the Asylum and
Immigration Bill, shortly to become law. Independent 8.4.93; see
No pass laws here! in CARF 14, May-June 1993.

Statewatch vol 3 no 2 March-April 1993