questions.NAT
JEB
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Any other avenue open to them to acquire British nationality
other than British Nationality Scheme?
-
Holders of BDTC/BN (0) passports have an entitlement to registration as a British citizen provided they have completed
five years UK residence and have settled status.
What happens in a "worst case scenario"?
Government Ministers have given assurances that if, against
all expectations, members of the non-Chinese ethnic community with solely British nationality ever come under pressure to
leave Hong Kong after 1997 and have nowhere else to go, the
government of the day would consider with particular sympathy any request for admission to the UK. [This assurance was
restated in the House in the course of an adjournment debate
on 9 July.]
- We see the various arrangements now in place as firm
foundations which will ensure the security of this community
in Hong Kong in the years to come. In short they will enjoy British Nationality, guaranteed right of abode in Hong Kong
and, as I have just indicated, they have the safety net of an
assurance of a sympathetic response to a request to settle in
the UK in the unlikely event that they were to come under
pressure to leave Hong Kong. But it must be the Government's
priority to ensure the future in Hong Kong of all British
passport holders, rather than making special arrangements for
one sector of the community.