Shirly and Evelyn: Banned from the UK?

Despite the widespread recognition that the expulsion of Shirley Edwards and Evelyn Calcabrini, two Welsh-Argentines attempting to visit Wales, by the UK Border Agency at Heathrow must have been some sort of mistake, both have once again been refused entry by the UKBA.

When this story first appeared in the press it was reported as an act of ignorance by a clueless UK Border Agent, unaware of the Welsh speaking region of Patagonia. With questions in the House of Commons, protests at Whitehall, (giving out leaflet calling for the resignation of Phil Woolas) a campaign from Plaid Cymru, a petition and even a strongly worded editorial in the Daily Telegraph(!) it seemed the entire event was about to be glossed over and written off as a cock up. Following a benefit gig in Gwynedd raising enough money for two return flights, Shirly and Eveyln applied for visas to enter the UK as students. They were refused.

There are reports that these cases are not unique and that other Patagonian travellers to Wales have also been through the highly stressful experience of being turned away by the Border Agency. It appears that rather than

No Borders 1925!

Though the systematic detention and deportation of people born outside this island without the correct documentation is a somewhat recent development, the use of migration control as a political implement by the British state has a long history.

In 1921 Emma Goldman the most famous female political radical of her generation moved to Britain, where she was virtually alone on the left in condemning the Russian revolution. She, along with Alexander Berkman had been deported