TNAG-1189-FCO40-1491-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-the-British-nationa-1982 — Page 53

:

In the White Paper which we published in July 1980 containing the

outline of our proposed legislation we said, in paragraph 16,

"The establishment of a separate citizenship for the British

Dependent Territories would in no way alter the relationship

of those territories and the United Kingdom, nor the

Government's obligations and commitments to the dependent

territories and to their citizens".

My Lords, my hon and rt hon Friends who spoke for the Government

during the passage of the subsequent legislation lust no opportunity

of repeating that assurance. I gladly repeat it today.

It. It must also be recognised, my Lords, that the passage of the

British Nationality Act 1981 has not changed the immigration position

of people from the dependencies. People from our dependent territories

who do not hold certain specified links with the United Kingdom have

been subject to immigration control since the passage of the first

Commonwealth Immigrants Act in 1962. The controls were confirmed in

the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968, passed by the party opposite,

and by the Immigration Act 1971.

5. All that the 1981 Act did was to change the title of the citizen-

ship held by those people who did not have the right of abode in the

United Kingdom. This change of citizenship title was resented by many

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