TNAG-1381-FCO40-1829-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-and-citizenship-1985 — Page 47

HOME OFFICE

CONFIDENTIAL

Lunar House Wellesley Road Croydon CR9 2ĘY

Telephone banigration) ¤œ36:0688:

BR

PUCK 040142

(104)

Nationality) PKG&LWARK

Telegram IMMNAT CROYDON

R.J.F. Hoare Esq

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London

SW1A 2AH

RECEIVED

6412

4FEB 1935

INDI

Please reply to The Under Secretary of State

-Your reference”

Our reference”

NE/337/0/2

Date

31 January 1985

160

ie.a hot not

byou 1997 вужчат

Dear Mr Hoare

HONG KONG: DRAFT ORDER IN COUNCIL.

I promised to write to you setting out Home Office views on two matters raised by John Grainger in his minutes of 21 and 22 January about the draft Order in Council, namely; the extent of the application of the statelessness provisions; and how to deal with British Dependent Territories citizens connected not only with Hong Kong but also with another dependent territory.

STATELESSNESS PROVISIONS

The Home Office position is set out in Wilfred Hyde's letter to Tony Galsworthy of 9 November last, and in our instructions to Parliamentary Counsel attached thereto.

In response to representations from Hong Kong it was agreed between the Home Office and the Foreign Commonwealth Office as a matter of policy that provision would be made to ensure that no former Hong Kong British Dependent Territory citizen, nor the child of such a person, would be left stateless as a result of the Agreement. As Wilfred Hyde's letter explains, to meet this commitment it is our view that the Order will have to extend not only to the children of BN(0)s, but also to the children of those former British Dependent Territories citizens who, for whatever reason, do not acquire BN (0) status, if those children would otherwise be stateless. You did not, I think, dissent from this view. This commitment has since been expressed publicly by Ministers in terms that no British national, nor the child of a British national, would be left stateless as a result of this Agreement. reflects our understanding of what was agreed between us.

This

Since

Since the commitment is deliberately unconditional then it follows that the acquisition of British Overseas citizenship must equally be unconditional. all those who would otherwise be stateless are to acquire the same status, namely British Overseas citizenship, then it follows that some children will be British Overseas citizens at birth in effect because their parents, having failed to acquire BN(0) status, became British Overseas citizens on 1 July 1997.

We fully accept that the proposed provisions go beyond both our obligations under the UN Convention on the reduction of statelessness, and the current provisions of Schedule 2 to the British Nationality Act 1981. But this is a matter of policy. The unconditional acquisition of British Overseas citizens is intended to apply only to the first generation born after 1 July 1977: subsequent generations will fall within the existing terms of Schedule 2 to the British Nationality Act 1981, and

CONFIDENTIAL