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1 1 JUL 1985
REGORY
INDEX
PA
Action Taken
Dr Wilson
FROM:
DATE:
A C Galsworthy, HKD 9 July 1985
RIGHT OF ABODE IN HONG KONG
254
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
their right of abode in Hon Kong/the Hong
Kong SAR.
persons
more
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 a connection with Hong Kong will be eligible for right of abode in the SAR.
Those
who were neither born in
nor Hong Kong
have been
ordinarily resident in Hong Kong for a continuous period of seven
years or
and who
abode elsewhere will not have the right of
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
have right of abode elsewhere, and therefore presumably
be settled elsewhere. This problem is inherent in the agreement
because the sets of people who
of people who lose BDTC status and those who have
right of abode in the SAR are not congruent.
3.
arises,
The question nevertheless
should the Hong Kong
Immigration Ordinance, which at present gives the "right to land" (ie right of abode) to all BDTCs by virtue of a
to all BDTCs by virtue of a connection with Hong
Kong, be amended to deprive the above mentioned persons of this
and right,
i f so when. Home Office officials concerned and we are
now agreed that:
(a) in order to comp ly 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 run counter to the aim and purpose of the BNA 1981, which was intended inter alia to
CONFIDENTIAL