Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
*HKD 340/9
RECEIVED IN rscistov
- 7 NOV 1990
DERK OFFICER
INDEX
PA
Telephone 01-
Your reference
Bob Niblett Esq
Overseas Labour Section
Our reference
CAYAPR/rw
Room 238, Department of Employment Caxton House
Date
6 November 1990
Tothill Street, London SW1
Dear Mr Niblett
ner
MACAU
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY - 7 NOV 1990
DESK OFFICER INDEX
RI
PA
ACTIL
7
We spoke about this on the telephone about this this morning. You asked for details of the nationality status of Macanese citizens.
1.
As agreed, I enclose an extract from our background brief on Hong Kong which describes the steps that the Portuguese have taken to grant Portuguese citizenship to residents of Macau:
2.
Comparisons have been made between British nationality law as it affects Hong Kong and Portuguese nationality law as it affects Macau. Portuguese nationality law has long granted Portuguese nationality to those born in Portuguese territory of Portuguese parents. The Portuguese Nationality Act 1981 confirmed that children of Portuguese citizens born in Macau could continue to acquire that nationality but the same act ended the automatic acquisition of nationality by children born to non-Portuguese in Macau. Right of abode in Portugual has always been granted to Portuguese passport holders in Macau whatever their racial origin. There is no accurate information available on the numbers of Portuguese passport holders in Macau: the best estimate is that a maximum of 100,000 people there have or are eligible for Portuguese nationality out of the total population of half a million.
In early 1989, news that Portugual had begun to issue EC common format passports to Portuguese nationals in Macau rekindled public controversy in Hong Kong, even though this did not reflect any change in the status of those Portuguese nationals. It was suggested, wrongly, that Portugual was granting citizenship to all residents of Macau. This is not the case. Nor is Portugual operating any kind of assurance package for Macau such as the one Britain has introduced by