26-JUL-1993 15:31
B4 IND LIVERPOOL
BACKGROUND NOTE
44 051 236 3386 P.05
1. This question is clearly designed to elicit a Government
response to the Liberal Democrat
Democrat motion
motion passed (by a majority of 60 to 48) by the House of Lords on 15 July during a debate on two Orders in Council relating to nationality matters in Hong Kong. The motion called on the Government to grant British citizenship to the non-Chinese ethnic minorities in Hong Kong who would be without the right of abode elsewhere after 1997.
2.
3.
There are about 24,000 non-Chinese ethnic minorities in Hong Kong, of whom about 7000 have only British Dependent Territories citizenship (BDTC). Since the mid-1980s there has been pressure to give them British citizenship, which the Government has consistently resisted, on the following grounds :
the ethnic minorities' ties are all with Hong Kong not with the United Kingdom
they will not be
be stateless. A11 BDTCs will be eligible for the status of British National (Overseas). If they do not register as BN (0) by
BN(0)s 1997, they will become British Overseas citizens if they would otherwise have become stateless
the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law guarantee the ethnic minorities the right of abode in Hong Kong
the Chinese authorities have made it clear that they will be able to apply for Chinese nationality.
The ethnic minorities have, however, been given a firm assurance, repeated most recently by Mr Wardle and Lord Ferrers in debates in both Houses that if, against all expectations, members of that group come under pressure to leave Hong Kong and had nowhere else to go, the Government of the day would be expected to consider with considerable