Aliens Act

In the UK, an act of Parliament passed by the Conservative government in 1905 to restrict the immigration of ‘undesirable persons’ into Britain; it was aimed at restricting Jewish immigration.

Undesirable persons were defined as people who might be a charge on the poor rates because they were without means or infirm. Since the act appeared to be stimulated by the arrival of large numbers of impoverished Europeans, many of them Jews from the Russian Empire, Prime Minister Balfour was accused of anti-Semitism.