Law and practice of immigration control in the United Kingdom and Kenya

Abstract

The thesis deals with the law and practice of immigration control in the United Kingdom and Kenya. A study of the law and practice of immigration control naturally falls into the fields of Constitutional and Administrative Law. 'There¬ fore, although attention will be focused on the analysis of the immigration laws and their administration one must remember that the problems that are raised invari¬ ably touch on various aspects of Constitutional and Administrative Law.Part I of the thesis first examines the scope and content of certain important aspects of the immigration laws of the two countries. The matters examined are: (i) those relating to people who have the right of free entry and stay, that is, patrials and citizens; (ii) those relating to the rules and regulations for the guidance and administration of control; (iii) those relating to appeals and (iv) those relating to deportations.The thesis then deals briefly with the purposes or ends that the immigration Laws are intended to serve in each country.Part II of the thesis contains detailed examinations of the administration of the laws in the U.K. and Kenya in that order. The administration of the laws ixtends from pre-departure requirements, to the purposes for which one may apply for leave to enter a country and to the regulations such a person is subject to if allowed country and stay.The detailed examination of the United Kingdom and Kenyan immigration law and systems of control inevitably entailed separate treatment because of the many differsnces between their laws and the varied methods of administration of the laws, fhere possible, however, comparisons have been made between the two systems.Part III is devoted to a comparative examination of the control of discretionary lowers of the immigration authorities in both countries through administrative and ludicial means. The constitutional importance of such control cannot be over¬ emphasised.The final section of the thesis suggests the most urgent amendments that should -e made to the immigration laws of both countries if the laws are to become more onsonant with the constitutional requirements of civilized societies that believe in he liberties of individuals. The suggestions are by no means exhaustive and should ot be taken to mean that the thesis is exclusively reform-oriented.Finally, it must be mentioned that immigration will probably always remain an aspect of state sovereignty of all countries. For this reason countries will be, in varying degrees, unwilling to surrender its control entirely to an independent adjudicator. Be that as it may, it is the assertion of this thesis that human rights must always take precedence over the notion of sovereignty and to that extent there is a case for arguing that the U.K. and Kenya, indeed all other countries of the world, owe it to humanity to start moving towards making immigration entirely a matter of law of rights.