British Nationality Order 1993
[LORDS]
[LORD WYATT OF WEEFORD] communist term goes. Some of them are still there. I am afraid that that may happen to any Chinese person who served with the British Armed Forces during our period in Hong Kong. The number of passports necessary, as the noble Lord, Lord Chalfont, said, is small; and, if nothing else can be done, they must be protected against any form of reprisal which might be taken against them if Peking felt so disposed. I should not like to think of them put into political prisoner camps in mainland China for rehabilitation.
We need not be afraid of upsetting unduly the Peking authorities by changing a little the provisions relating to passports for Hong Kong Chinese or members of the non-Chinese ethnic minorities. We should remember that China is a strange and great country. In the end, she looks after her own interests first. There are three things that she wants at the moment. She wants to be a member of the GATT, as Hong Kong is; she wants the Olympics 2000 rather than have them held in Manchester; and she wants most favoured nation status with the United States. Peking is not likely to show anger, cause fear or take reprisals as a result of us giving a few more passports to the people in Hong Kong, 3 million of whom were deprived wantonly of those passports by the first British Nationality Act. It was enacted because people in Brixton did not like being mugged by people from Jamaica. As a result of that Act, many people except those from Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands, were excluded from having the passports to which they had been entitled all their lives.
I shall support the amendment moved by the noble Lord, Lord McIntosh of Haringey, and the Motion tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Bonham-Carter. I know that the noble Earl, Lord Ferrers, has a kind heart. I am sure that he has been pondering with some anxiety the possible avenues that may be open to many of the people who feel they might be put in a dangerous position after we have left Hong Kong. I am sure that he will do all he can with the Government, because various parts of Whitehall can be stubborn, to ensure that everything possible is done to increase the number of passports issued.
7.55 p.m.
Lord St. John of Bletso: My Lords, in my brief contribution I do not want to discuss the impact of the two amendment orders which the Minister so clearly outlined. They provide an element of flexibility to the British Nationality (Hong Kong) Act 1980, a fair allocation for the second tranche of applications for British citizenship and a timetable for the orderly registration of those applying for British national ordinary status. However, the orders do not provide for proper nationality status for the non-Chinese ethnic minorities who are British dependent territory citizens of Hong Kong. It is to that end, as have most other noble Lords who have spoken this evening, that I wish to address my remarks and, in so doing, to support the Motion tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Bonham-Carter.
The subject was debated in the other place on 9th July. It is well known that a central objective of Her
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Majesty's Government in her negotiations on Hong Kong with China has been the desire to protect the rights, freedoms and prosperity of the peoples they will hand over to Chinese rule in July 1997. One of the basic rights is the right to nationality.
Most noble Lords, in particular my noble friend Lady Dunn in a most moving and convincing speech, have drawn attention to the plight of the non-Chinese ethnic minorities post-1997. It is seen by many as an embarrassing loose end to the Sino-British agreement. The history of the involvement in Hong Kong of the non-Chinese ethnic minorities is well documented. They have established a community that is highly respected for its social and economic contribution to the colony's development. Many have lived in Hong Kong for generations and have few or
no ties elsewhere. They include major employers and senior figures in finance and government. I understand that until recently the Indian population, which makes up a minuscule percentage of the colony's population, contributed almost 10 per cent. towards the colony's wealth.
Because those minorities are not ethnic Chinese, as the noble Lord, Lord Bonham-Carter, said, China's race-based law gives them no automatic right to Chinese nationality, even if they wished to take it, although the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department gave assurances in another place in the debate on 9th July that,
"The Joint Declaration and article 24(6) of the Basic Law guarantee the ethnic minorities the right of abode in Hong Kong.... The Peking authorities have said that people in Hong Kong who are not ethnically Chinese are welcome to remain and that it is open to them to apply for Chinese citizenship". -{Official Report, Commons, 9/7/93; col. 651.] However, as I understand it, there is a real fear that the Chinese government will, at best, grant second class citizenship to those people, and could effectively exclude them from becoming chief executives of their own companies or from filling senior civil service and police posts. The noble Lord, Lord Bonham-Carter, has already mentioned that the Chinese authorities consider the British national (overseas) documents to be of no more value than travel documents. Although these minorities have been offered the token status of British overseas citizenship it has been mentioned by many noble Lords that it does not confer the right of abode in Britain nor British consular protection in Hong Kong, and that will expire with the first generation.
While the Home Secretary has said that these ethnic minorities in Hong Kong can apply for British citizenship under the selection scheme established by the British Nationality (Hong Kong) Act, 1990, presumably under the section relating to key entrepreneurs, I would argue that this is a touch elitist, in particular as the points allocated to the criteria of experience, education, training and special circum- stances could favour the more affluent and successful applicants over those who are less privileged.
It has been argued that for Her Majesty's Government to refuse the non-Chinese minorities in Hong Kong the right to British citizenship could be a violation of their obligations under the 1961