28 January 1992
HKD 340/6
18 FEB 1992
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
.ST
London SWIA 2AH
Peter Lloyd Esq, MP
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
Home Office
Queen Anne's Gate
London SW1
New file
ZB
4
From The Minister of State
Makoodrows,
جم کا
ни
HUD 340/2
"J" 30/1
38
Sea Peter
BRITISH NATIONALITY ACT 1981: HONG KONG
You wrote to me on 21 November about OMELCO's request to register a group of Hong Kong children as British citizens under Section 3(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981. You offered to deal with this by means of an immigration concession.
91/HKD 340/4
(267)
I
I wrote to Dr C H Leong on 26 November accordingly. then discussed the offer with OMELCO during my visit on 6 December. The matter was left that they would consider further and reply in due course. I have not yet had a reply, but I understand that Dr Leong called on you recently to discuss the matter. I thought I should let you have my views in the light of my discussions with OMELCO.
The immigration concession really will not meet the needs of these children. The only real benefit to them in this concession (over their existing entitlement under the Immigration Rules) would be that it would apply to over-aged dependent children up to the age of 26. Furthermore, to take up this offer would require families to up-root themselves from Hong Kong and settle in the United Kingdom which cuts across the whole thrust of our nationality policy towards Hong Kong. OMELCO's argument is that the affected families wish to remain in Hong Kong to continue to contribute to its prosperity and stability. What they need is precisely the kind of assurance offered to key people under the British Nationality (Hong Kong) Act 1990: British citizenship. Most of the parents of these children would have been strongly placed to succeed under the selection scheme, were it not for the fact that they were already British citizens.
I realise that to grant citizenship to these children would overide one of the administrative criteria normally used to justify registering minors under Section 3 (1), but there is
/nothing in the
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