E
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
FLOAT.
'75
23 June 1993
Ms Anita Gidumal Indian Resources Group 2700 Vicwood Plaza 199 Des Veoux Road Central
Hong Kong
London SWIA 2AH
Telephone: 071-
Dear Ms Giciumal.
(74)
Your letters of 1 June to the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and to Mr Douglas Hogg enclosing a paper on the ethnic minorities in Hong Kong has been passed to this department for reply. As you will be aware, a delegation from the House Committee of Hong Kong's Legislative Council visited London earlier this month and raised their concerns about the position after 1997 of those members of the community with solely British Nationality. They were able to discuss their concerns (on separate occasions) with the Minister of State, Mr Goodlad and with the Home Secretary.
The position of this community was specifically considered by Parliament during the passage of the British Nationality (Hong Kong) Act 1990. It was decided after full consideration that sufficient safeguards were already in place for them and that there was no case for special treatment. Home Office Ministers have since looked again at the question on more than one occasion. When the Home Secretary met the Hong Kong delegation on 9 June, he said that he had given further careful consideration to the question of British citizenship for the ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. He reminded the delegation that the Government had given an assurance to the effect that if members of that community came under pressure to leave Hong Kong after 1997, the United Kingdom would consider with particular sympathy any claim they made for admission to this country. He said that there was no question of going further and granting them British citizenship · a course which would require amendments to primary legislation.
The Government's view is that the future of the community in Hong Kong after 1997 is assured. Their right of abode in Hong Kong is protected under both the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law. Also no member of the ethnic community will become stateless in 1997; the Hong Kong (British Natinality) Order 1986 ensures, in accordance with our internatinal obligations,
gidumal.NAT.NH/JRB