the UK: doing its bit to remember

From the COE HR Commisioner's report On the Human Rights Situation of the Roma, Sinti and Travellers in Europe (2006)

On the basis of the Race Relations Act, the United Kingdom adopted a decree in 2001 ordering the immigration authorities to subject certain persons to “more rigorous examination than others in the same circumstances” on the basis of their nationality or ethnicity. The decree includes, in an annex, a list of such groups, among them the Roma. An immigration officer may, by reason of that person’s ethnic or national origin, detain the person pending his examination, decline to give the person’s notice of grant or refusal of leave to enter, and impose a condition or restriction on the person’s leave to enter the United Kingdom or on his temporary admission to the United Kingdom. Moreover, when the person is outside the United Kingdom, an immigration officer or the State Secretary may, by reason of that person’s ethnic or national origin, decline to give or refuse the person leave to enter before he arrives in the UK. This decree, which subjects persons to differentiated treatment solely on the basis of their nationality or ethnicity, is clearly in breach of the fundamental principle of non-discrimination and equality before the law, and should therefore be amended.