TNAG-0660-FCO40-809-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-British-nationality-1977 — Page 67

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10.

The most serious drawback to the status of citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies is that it does not provide a ready definition of who has the right of entry to the United Kingdom. In most other western countries, citizens and citizens only - automatically have the right of entry. Under our system, a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies may not have any close ties with the United Kingdom, or even with a remaining Colony. So, when successive Governments have found it necessary to control immigration from the Commonwealth, they have felt obliged to distinguish between the citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies whose close ties with the United Kingdom gave them a claim to be freely admitted here, and the remainder. These distinctions within a common citizenship have been hard to follow. They have caused con- fusion and have encouraged the belief that our immigration laws contain elements of racial prejudice. The Immigration Act 1971 increased the confusion, since not only did distinctions within the citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies continue, but the right of entry was also conferred, to a limited degree, on certain citizens of other Commonwealth countries. As a result, for example, certain Australian and Indian citizens may have a right of entry to the United Kingdom which some citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies do not possess.

11.

As a background to discussion of all the issues, it will be useful to give some idea of the number of people involved. Altogether there are about 950 million people throughout the world who are "British Subjects" in our law. Most of these are, of course, citizens of independent Commonwealth countries. Of the rest 56 million are citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies by reason of their close connection with the United Kingdom itself and are exempt from United Kingdom immigration control. A further 3.3 million (of whom 2, 6 million are in Hong Kong) are citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies by virtue of a close connection with an existing dependency. These do not have a right of entry to the United Kingdom, but they do almost invariably have the right of admission to a dependency. There are, however, a number of citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies - about 190, 000 mostly in Malaysia, India and Africa who, deriving their status from former dependencies, have no such rights (the numbers in East Africa are declining as a result of admission here under the special voucher scheme which the government intend to continue). Then there are thought to be some 3 million citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies (1 million in this country) with dual nationality who are exempt from United Kingdom immigration control, a further 1. 3 million (most in Malaysia) who are subject to such control. Many of these citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies without rights of entry to either the United Kingdom or a dependency are, of course, well established in their countries of residence even when they do not have dual citizenship. Finally it should be added that there are believed to be about 250, 000 British Subjects without Citizenship, and over 274, 000 British Protected Persons (the majority in the Solomon Islands). Nearly all of these people are living abroad and are subject to immigration control. About 120, 000 Irish citizens have made formal claims under section 2 of the 1948 Act to remain British subjects (see paragraph 5 above).

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