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1 1 JUL 1985
CONFIDENTIAL
fa
Natrauliy
Dr Wilson
0.
INDEX
T-CSIRY
PA
Action Taken
FROM: A C Galsworthy, HKD
DATE: 9 July 1985
m.
が
261
RIGHT OF ABODE IN THONG-KONG.
1.
You will wish to be aware of discussions which we have been
holding with the Home Office on the question of whether and when to
deprive a (probably extremely small) category of Hong Kong BDTCs/prospective BNOS of their right of abode in Hong Kong/the Hong
Kong SAR.
a connection
2. All BDTCs by virtue of a connection with Hong Kong will, as you know, be eligible to become BN (O)s. But, by the terms of paragraph 1 of Section XIV of Annex I, not all BDTCs by virtue of
with Hong Kong will be eligible for right of abode in the SAR.
Those persons who
we re neither born in Hong Kong nor have been
ordinarily resident in Hong Kong for a continuous period of seven
years ог more and who have the right of
the right of abode elsewhere will not
have this right. In practice this will probably not much matter,
both because the number of persons affected is likely to be very small and, more importantly, because those who are affected will by definition have right of abode elsewhere, and therefore presumably
be settled elsewhere. This problem is inherent in the agreement
because the sets of people who lose BDTC status and those who have
right of abode in the SAR are not congruent.
3.
The question
nevertheless
arises, should the Hong Kong
Immigration Ordinance, which at present gives
present gives the "right to land" (ie right of abode) to all BDTCs by virtue of a connection with Hong
Kong, be amended to deprive the above mentioned persons of this
right, and i f SO when. Home Office officials concerned and we are
now agreed that:
(a) in order to comp I y with the terms of the agreement, these persons will have to be deprived of their right of abode from 1 July 1997; but
(b)
it would both be inequitable and would
purpose of the BNA 1981, which was
and
run counter to the aim
intended inter alia to
CONFIDENTIAL