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British National came under pressure to leave Hong Kong in the
future, and had nowhere to go, we would expect the government of the
day to consider their case for admission here with considerable and
particular sympathy. The Government stand by that commitment.
27. The Committee recommended that the immigration rules should be
changed so that periods spent by Hong Kong British Students studying
in the UK for recognised qualifications at tertiary level or above
should count towards "residency" (paragragh 4.24). The Government
have interpreted this to mean that such periods of study should lead
to settlement in the UK. Under the immigration rules, students are
regarded as coming here for a temporary purpose and admission as a
student does not provide an avenue to settlement. The Government
see no reason to depart from this principle in the case of students
from Hong Kong and therefore do not propose to implement the Committee's recommendation in this regard. It is worth noting,
however, that if a person who has been in the UK as a student achieves settlement by some other means (for example, by marriage)
and then applies for citizenship, the period spent here as a student
can be counted towards the residence requirement for citizenship.
VIETNAMESE BOAT PEOPLE
As
28. The Government welcome the Committee's analysis of this
problem. Since 1975, nearly 170,000 Vietnamese boat people have arrived in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has continued to operate a policy
of first asylum. No asylum seekers have ever been turned away.
the Committee rightly states, the Hong Kong Government had no
alternative but to introduce a screening policy in June 1988 (paragraph 5.2). The introduction of screening was precipitated by a major new influx of boat people in 1987 and 1988 and by a change
in the pattern of arrivals.
29. In 1989 34,000 Vietnamese asylum-seekers arrived in Hong Kong, bringing the total number to over 57,000 by the end of last year.
down on last
So far this year the number of new arrivals is
is (wet) down year's figures K1250 in the period up to 27 April, compared to over
CATAAU (12)
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