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left Hong Kong permanently and have the right of abode elsewhere, the right of abode in Hong Kong from 1 July 1997. and the Order in Council gives all Hong Kong BDTCs the right to register as BN (0)s. But during the debates last year and during the passage of the Hong Kong Bill a number of members were concerned that those British Dependent Territories citizens in Hong Kong who were not ethnically Chinese, and their children, might be left stateless in 1997 because they would not be regarded as Chinese nationals. The Government recognised that concern and gave a firm under- taking that no former Hong Kong British Dependent Territories citizen, nor any child born after June 1997 to such a person, would remain stateless as a result of the agreement. In response to further representations from a number of quarters this undertaking was extended during the Committee State of the Bill in another place to cover the grandchildren of former Hong Kong British Dependent Territories citizens if they were born stateless.
Our present proposals are set out in Article 6.
It provides that
any former Hong Kong British Dependent Territories citizen who for any reason has not acquired the BN (0) status to which he is entitled and would otherwise be stateless in 1997, will automatically become a British Overseas citizen on 1 July 1997. Any of their children born after June 1997 if they would otherwise be stateless will also acquire
/British