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Article: FROM PROTECTOR TO PERSECUTOR: BRITAIN'S GROWING INTOLERANCE OF REFUGEES
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- July 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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"Britain has a proud tradition of providing refuge for those
fleeing persecution," wrote the Home Secretary, Michael Howard, in
the Daily Mail last November. Indeed, he has a personal debt to
that tradition: his own father fled to Britain from persecution in
Romania in the Thirties.
Britain's history as a haven can be traced back to the 16th
century: in the 1560s, there was an influx of Protestants from the
Netherlands; in the 1680s, when the Edict of Nantes was revoked by
Louis XIV, 50,000 French Huguenots sought sanctuary here; the
French Revolution of 1789 resulted in the arrival of more refugees,
and as further risings flared around Europe, Britain welcomed
revolutionaries and deposed ...