1993
12:53
FOO M.V.D.
071 270 4046
P.02
1. Grateful if you would now return to the Austrians and aɛk them if they would be prepared to negotiate a further amendment to the 1968 Exchange of Notes as proposed in FCO telno 759 to Hong Kong.
2. You will wish to make the following points~
a) BN(0) passports entitle their holders to the legal right of abode in Hong Kong and the holders' returnability to Hong Kong is guaranteed both before 1997 and by the Chinese government thereafter. (See para 3 below)
b) Hong Kong BDTCS and BN (O)s have equal rights
C)
(a)
e)
BN(0)s currently visit the UK and many other countries without being required to hāve visas
Visa free access to third countries is important to Hong Kong residents and has an impact on the territory's present and future prosperity
Hong Kong travellers have arecord of good behaviour and of paying their way. There is no history of illegal immigration from Hong Kong to Europe.
3. We have discussed the possibility of riding on the back of the Benelux arrangements with the Home Office. Their response is that it would be unwise to attempt to extend the arrangements which are now almost an anachronism. The arrangement came about in the early 1960s aɛ a result of the wording in the visa abolition agreements made with the Benelux countries which obliged the United Kingdom not to return to the Benelux countries certain classes of person deported or expelled to the United Kingdom. The possibility of extending the arrangement to Germany was considered in 1988 and the view taken then was that it was neither appropriate nor necessary to extend the arrangements, which reflected a particular and specific set of circumstances existing nearly thirty years before. Hong Kong BN(C)G' and BDTCs' returnability to Hong Kong is guaranteed and there were therefore no grounds for routing IIK British passport holders expelled from Germany back to Hong Kong through the United Kingdom. The conclusion of such an agreement with Austria could lead to requests from other countries for similar arrangements which would have to include other holders of British passports subject to control, some of whose returnability is uncertain. The Home office is not willing to move down this particular path, which we feel bound to agree is fraught with peril.
ૐ
TOTAL P.02