CONFIDENTIAL
Removal of Hong Kong from list of Dependent Territories
23.
Article 5 deletes Hong Kong from the list of British Dependent
Territories in Schedule 6 to the British Nationality Act 1981 as from 1
July 1997.
Provisions for reducing statelessness
24.
Article 6 sets out the provisions proposed during the debates on the
Hong Kong Bill for avoiding or reducing statelessness. The underlying
principle is that no one who loses BDTC status as a result of the Order
(hereafter "former BDTC") nor any child born on or after 1 July 1997 to
such a person, should be stateless as a result of the Joint Declaration.
This principle was extended in the Committee stage of the Hong Kong Bill
in the House of Lords to the grandchildren of former BDTCs if they are
born stateless (1). The provisions in respect of these grandchildren
parallel those of section 17(2) and (3) of the British Nationality Act
1981. These provide that a child born stateless outside the Dependent
Territories is entitled to be registered as a BDTC if an application is
made within 12 months of the birth and if:
a) his or her mother or father ("the parent in question")
was a BDTC by descent at the time of the birth and
b) the father or mother of the parent in question was a
BDTC otherwise than by descent at the time of the birth
of the parent in question, or became such a BDTC on
1 January 1983, or would have done so but for his or her
death.
1. Official Report: Volume 461, Number 60, Columns 237-8