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PASSPORTS TO SOMEWHERE?
The JCWI Report on the draft Order in Council
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The draft Order gives HK BDTCs a right to register as BN(0)s. It does not specify how this will be done.
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It is not clear how applications will be made: will it be necessary simultaneously to acquire a passport; will a separate registration application have to be made?
3 International travel problems: Third countries need to know that
passengers travelling on a particular passport can be returned somewhere.
4 The statuses created by the BNA81 are not in line with HKs own immigration law and practice. 'Right of abode' and 'Settlement' do not exist under the HK immigration ordinance.
5 Resident aliens are not sure how they can apply for settlement
6 There is confusion about how to prove and document the right of abode status
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International acceptance of the new passports must be ensured.
8 The new passport must be evidence of a national status and the right to
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reside somewhere.
The effect of the suggestion that BN(0) passport holders should carry an identity card showing a right to live in HK will be to reduce the passports to worthless documents and the identity card will become the travel document.
Such a procedure would leave expatriate BN(0)s without the means to rtavel freely because, living outside HK, they would not necessarily possess the requisite identity card.
It have I of a in Hader hele ID card)
The right to travel freely on a British issued passport is very important for those people who will not be able to acquire a Chinese travel document.
There should be an agreement with China to endorse the passports of those people with a right to live in HK with a declaration that effect
Recommendations
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After 1 July 1997 a passport application from a HK BDTC should be taken to be an application for the status of BN(0)
2 HK immigration laws should clarify the statuses of 'settlement' and 'right
of abode'
3 Britain should negotiate visa waiver agreements
4 Britain and China should agree to endorse the passports of BN(0)s and HK BOCs
with a certificate of right of abode in HK.