HK0340/3
DM Landsman
SED
RECEL
STAY
23 OCT 1990
OFFICEA
INC
PA
FILE ON(O)
Reference
RY Action Taken
1. As a BN (0) passport holder,
holder, Mrs Clements does indeed
require a visa to enter Portugal. Mr Clements admits that
is was an "oversight" on their part not to get one before
they left London. This is the first we have heard of Hong Kongers having problems with Portuguese immigration.
It may be that they take a tough line with any visa national and
do not allow visas to be issued on arrival as a matter of
policy. I should point out that Hong Kong have been pressing for visa abolition with EC countries but Portugal is one of
the ones which do still require them.
2.
Consular Department have had previous experience in
dealing with similar letters from people refused entry because they had no visa, and their standard reply is that
the onus is on the traveller to check on the requirements
before their journey, and that this advice is also contained at the back of all British passports. HMG cannot hope to influence another country's immigration rules in such individual cases. It is possible that if Mr Clements'
travel agent gave the wrong advice he may have grounds for a
claim against them, but clearly he has none against the
Portuguese Government. (One would have thought that after his previous "oversight" in Yugoslavia he would have had the
sense to check before flying!)
3.
One misconception that you may wish to correct is the
claim regarding Macao and Portuguese nationality.
As you know, in early 1988 Portugal began to issue EC common format passports to their nationals in Macao and this led to the
belief that Portugal was granting citizenship to all
Macanese. This was not the case; it did not reflect any change in Portuguese nationality laws. Portuguese nationals of Macao have always had right of entry to Metropolitan
Portugal.
TOYAHM/1
CODE 18-77