TNAG-1193-FCO40-1495-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-the-British-nationa-1982 — Page 23

CODE 18-77

Mr J O Hill, Legal Advisers

PARLIAMENTARY QUESTION

Reference

HAK 340/1 PA..

π AF 16/12

1. We have agreed with the Home Office a renly to the following oral question put down by Sir Charles Fletcher-Cooke for answer on 16 December:

2.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if, since the Royal Assent was given to the British Nationality Act 1981, there has been any alteration in the citizen- or immigration status or expectations of the inhabitants of Hong Kong whether by adminis- trative action, ministerial assurances or otherwise.

!!

Mr Timothy Raison has asked officials to provide a reply to the following supplementary question:

DOES NOT BRITISH NATIONALITY IMPLY THAT IN THE LAST RESORT WE MIGHT HAVE TO ACCEPT IN THIS COUNTRY THOSE WHO HOLD IT?

Home Office officials proposed the following renly:

In a particular case it is conceivable that

a person to whom we have issued a passport might be expelled from his country of residence to a 3rd country. That country could then

look to us as a matter of customary international law to accept him. This falls short of saving that we should automatically have to accept any

British Dependent Territories citizen who is

under any threat of expulsion from his country

of residence...

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3. We discussed this on the telephone and agreed that it was too risky to even imply that we might accent another country's view of our duty in this matter under customary international law. We agreed to propose the following alternative renly:

'National status does not in itself confer the right of abode, which is subject to control under the Immigration Act 1971. Exceptional circumstances will have to be considered as and when they arise.'

alas

•

4 You thought it would be advisable to provide for a direct

question about duty under international law in this field, and proposed the following:

IS THERE A DUTY UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW FOR A STATE TO REVEIVE ITS OWN NATIONALS?

4

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