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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Although there are no reliable, detailed official figures as to the present ethnic composition of the population of Great Britain, a recent survey by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys has estimated that the number of Africans settled here is just over 100,000. Many more, of course, arrive in Britain each year as students or visitors. Indeed, in 1986 the volume of visitors from Nigeria and Ghana was considered by the British Government to be placing such burdens on immigration officials at the ports of entry that it was felt necessary to alter the immigration rules; people coming from those two countries now have to be in possession of visas before they arrive in the United Kingdom.
The presence of a significant number of Africans in England today is nothing new. There were at least 10,000 here in the late eighteenth century and possibly as many as 30,000, at a time when the total population of the country was only about a sixth of what it is today. West African slaves were brought to England from the 1570s onward. Most of them were used as household servants, often by the aristocracy, and some were employed as court entertainers. Indeed, at the beginning of the sixteenth century Henry VII had a black trumpeter (of uncertain origin) in his retinue. Much earlier, Africans served as soldiers in the Roman legions which occupied Britain during the first four centuries A.D.
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2 In 1984–85 there were 6,517 students from Africa at universities and on other public sector higher and further education courses in the U.K. See Statistics of Students from Abroad in the U.K. 1984/5, British Council, 1986, p. 41.Google Scholar The countries sending the largest number were Nigeria (3,221), Libya (1,250) and Kenya (1,056).
3 See H.C. 584 of 1985–1986 (Ghana) and H.C. 154 of 1986–87 (Nigeria).Google Scholar Similar rules were applied to visitors from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, whereas formerly visitors from Commonwealth countries were exempt from visa requirements.
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62 The custom of opium smoking practised by Chinese seamen here during the nineteenth century was treated as a perfectly lawful activity then, coinciding as it did with the widespread habit of opium consumption among the majority community at this time. It was only in the early years of the present century that legislative controls were introduced to outlaw the use of opiates for non-medical purposes, for reasons which had little to do with the activities of the few Chinese living in England at this period. See generally, Berridge, V. and Edwards, G., Opium and the People, Yale, 1987, esp. chap. 15.Google Scholar
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100 Principle 2.
101 Arts. 7, 3 and 5, respectively.
102 Art. 16.
103 See Australian Law Reform Commission Report on the Recognition of Aboriginal Customary Law, para. 503.
104 See e.g. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 23(1); International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, art. 10(1); African Charter, art. 18(1).
105 See e.g. art. 8(1) of the European Convention which states that everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life. Art. 8(2) allows for interference by public authorities if this is necessary for e.g. the protection of the rights and freedom of others.
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