TNAG-1383-FCO40-1831-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-and-citizenship-1985 — Page 199

CONFIDENTIAL

HKK 040/4

215

HOME OFFICE

Lunar House Wellesley Road Croydon CR9 2BY Telephone (Immigration) or-686 0688 Calls answered in rotation

(Nationality)

xxx please await reply

01-760 2829

Mrs J Priest

Hong Kong Department

Foreign and Commonwealth Office LONDON

SW1A 2AH

Dear Jan

سمعها

Please reply to The Under Secretary of State Your reference

Our reference

NTY/85 1/387/1

Date

12 June 1985

HONG KONG IMMIGRATION ORDINANCE:

209

TELNOS 1099 AND 1100

210

We have only one comment of substance.

209

Paragraph 8A of Telno 1100 states that right of abode will have to be withdrawn from Some Hong Kong Belongers (eg those neither born in Hong Kong nor ordinarily resident there for seven years or more, and who have the right of abode elsewhere).

It is clearly of utmost importance that the Immigration Ordinance and the Order in Council are in conformity here. Ministers are committed to the recording of right of abode in BN(0) passports. Therefore only those people who have the right of abode in Hong Kong can acquire BN(0) status. Our draft Order (which we hope to put to you next week) covers persons born outside Hong Kong of parents settled in Hong Kong, and people registered outside Hong Kong if they have certain specific qualifying connections with Hong Kong. If such people are excluded from the Immigration Ordinance they will also have to be excluded from our Order. But it is not easy to see how to put this in specific legislative terms, unless we either:

a)

b)

include in the order a catch-all to the effect that the Order does not apply to persons who do not have the right of abode in Hong Kong under the Hong Kong law, or

state expressly in the Order that it does not apply to these people in terms corresponding to the relevant provisions in the Hong Kong Immigration Ordinance.

Option (a) means including a reference to Hong Kong legislation which you and Hong Kong consider would be inappropriate (although our Legal Advisers do not consider such a reference to be out of the question).

A consequence of proceeding in the way suggested by Hong Kong would be that persons who are clearly Hong Kong BDTCs and therefore Hong Kong Belongers under the current Ordinance would be excepted from loss of their British Dependent Territories citizenship on 1 July 1997 by being deprived of right of abode in the revised Ordinance. Some of these people may be ethnic Chinese. It might be difficult to present such a consequence both to Hong Kong and to the Chinese. We also foresee the possibility that the Hong Kong administration may be faced with large numbers of people claiming exception from loss of BDTC status on the grounds that they are