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13
A.D. 1905.
disembarked for the purpose, in company with a medical inspector, such
inspection to be made as soon as practicable, and the immigration officer
shall withhold leave in the case of any immigrant who appears to him to be
an undesirable immigrant within the meaning of this section.
(2) Where leave to land is so withheld in the case of any immigrant,
the master, owner, or agent of the ship, or the immigrant, may appeal to
the immigration board of the port, and that board shall, if they are satisfied
that leave to land should not be withheld under this Act, give leave to land,
and leave so given shall operate as the leave of the immigration officer.
(3) For the purposes of this section an immigrant shall be considered an
undesirable immigrant—
(а) if he cannot show that he has in his possession or is in a position to
obtain the means of decently supporting himself and his dependents
(if any) ; or
(b) if he is a lunatic or an idiot, or owing to any disease or infirmity appears
likely to become a charge upon the rates or otherwise a detriment
to the public ; or
(c) if he has been sentenced in a foreign country with which there is an
extradition treaty for a crime, not being an offence of a political
character, which is, as respects that country, an extradition crime
within the meaning of the Extradition Act, 1870 ; or
33 & 34 Vict,
c. 52.
(d) if an expulsion order under this Act has been made in his case ;
but in the case of an immigrant who proves that he is seeking admission to
this country solely to avoid prosecution or punishment on religious or political
grounds or for an offence of a political character, or persecution, involving
danger of imprisonment or danger to life or limb, on account of religious
belief, leave to land shall not be refused on the ground merely of want of
means, or the probability of his becoming a charge on the rates, nor shall leave
to land be withheld in the case of an immigrant who shows to the satisfaction
of the immigration officer or board concerned with the case that, having taken
his ticket in the United Kingdom and embarked direct therefrom for some
other country immediately after a period of residence in the United Kingdom
of not less than six months, he has been refused admission in that country
and returned direct therefrom to a port in the United Kingdom, and leave to
land shall not be refused merely on the ground of want of means to any
immigrant who satisfies the immigration officer or board concerned with the
case that he was born in the United Kingdom, his father being a British
subject.
(4) The Secretary of State may, subject to such conditions as he thinks
fit to impose, by order exempt any immigrant ships from the provisions of this
section if he is satisfied that a proper system is being maintained for preventing