one of course
will be forced to apply for
can assure you that no one
result of the Sino-British
Chinese nationality. But I
who loses BDTC status as a
left stateless in 1997.
automatically become a
Joint Declaration will be
Neither will their children or grandchildren born after
1997. The provisions we will make under the Nationality
Order in Council shortly to be laid before the House will
give all Hong
Hong Kong BDTCs the right to acquire the new
status of British National (Overseas) and to retain this
for life. If for any reason a Hong Kong BDTC does not
acquire BN (0) status he will
British Overseas citizen on 1 July 1997 if he would
otherwise be stateless. Children and grandchildren will
also be able to acquire British Overseas Citizenship if
they would otherwise be stateless. These provisions
guarantee British nationality for those who would
otherwise be stateless for 2 generations born after 1
July 1997. Coupled with the right of abode guarantees
that are written into the Joint
the Joint Declaration, they give
the ethnic minorities in Hong Kong and their descendants
recognised nationality until about the middle of the
a
Nily
next century and a place to call their home. You will no
doubt have seen the statement on the issue made by the
Home Secretary on 23 April. In it he set out the reasons
why the Government believe these measures are the right
ones.
But he also made it quite clear that if any
British national were in the future to come under
pressure to leave Hong Kong we would
expect
the
Government of the day to consider sympathetically the
case for admission to the United Kingdom.