Uganda 50: the couple who welcomed 40 fleeing relatives into their two-bedroom home

It's almost 50 years since Ugandan President Idi Amin ordered 70,000 Asians to leave the country within three months.

President Idi Amin accused them of corruption and not doing enough to integrate - claims strongly denied by those who lived there.

The announcement led to widespread violence and fear, and many families came to Britain.

But while many were being forced to flee, Leicester City Council placed an advert in an Ugandan newspaper telling them not to come to the city.

When they did arrive, many faced suffered verbal and physical abuse.

"I was not expecting to be told to go back home. What home ? We had nowhere to go"

Among those was Nisha Raichura. She was just nine years old when she left Uganda with her family.

During a visit to a new exhibition about the expulsion at Leicester's Curve Theatre, she said the reception she received from local people back then was like the weather - cold and miserable.

Nisha says:

"Wherever we walked there were people who were just pointing us to where the planes were. We had no home. It was an utter thought of rejection. Our lives were saved when we got on the plane, so to go back to that ? Go back to where our necks were going to be cut off ? Is that what they wanted?".

Atul Pattani is a jeweller on the Golden Mile. He was just 8 when he came to England.

His parents were keen for him to start school as soon as possible. But Atul says it was a period that was dark and depressing.

Atul says students would beat him at school - because that's what their parents had taught them.

He says:

"They would physically attack you, kick you, punch you and make you fall down. The kids my age were taught that by their parents, saying we don't belong in their country".

The arrival of Asians came against a backdrop of rising racial tensions in Britain. But concerns locally and nationally that Asians would be a burden, proved to be unfounded.

"The two-bed, one-bath home that housed 40 fleeing relatives from Uganda"

Pratibhaben Kataria and her husband Hirenlal came to Leicester in 1970.

When the exodus from Uganda started two years later, forty of her relatives who had fled the country, asked to stay with them.

They agreed - and all ended up living in a two-bedroom house with just one bathroom.

A few days after the relatives moved in, a neighbour complained to the council and mistakenly told them illegal immigrants were living there.

Council officials turned up the next day - and Pratibhaben recalls the surprising gesture that happened next.

She says:

"They were surprised and later sent us a thank-you letter, saying "we are grateful that you gave shelter to so many people in your house".

The neighbour and Mrs Kataria went on became close friends.

And fifty years on, a community that was once shunned by council bosses is thriving.

Uganda's loss has been Britain's gain.