This report concerns the effect of British nationality law on the people of Hong Kong as Britain relinquishes responsibility for the territory. It therefore concentrates on the position and problems of British nationals, and in particular British nationals without any other nationality, not because they are more important or more deserving of concern than other groups, but because they are people for whom Britain has a clear and unequivocal responsibility to provide a secure and effective nationality status.
The report describes the inevitable insecurity and uncertainty surrounding the imminent return of Hong Kong to China (Chapter 1). It shows how this is compounded by Britain's complicated and discriminatory nationality laws (Chapter 2). It draws particular attention to the position of the non-Chinese minority groups in Hong Kong whose British nationality leaves them effectively stateless (Chapter 3). It also points out the vulnerability of some non-British nationals, particularly the refugees from Indo-China, who are now living under British protection in Hong Kong (Chapter 4).
It recommends action which Britain could and should take to provide some security for all these groups:
by providing an avenue to British citizenship for the small number of British nationals who also have Chinese nationality, but who fear they could be at risk in the new Hong Kong;
by granting full British citizenship, with the right of abode in Britain, to the few thousand non-Chinese British nationals in Hong Kong, who have no effective nationality;
by helping to resolve the citizenship status of non-British nationals whose homes are in Hong Kong; and by taking urgent action to resettle, well before 1997, those Vietnamese refugees who have no legal status in Hong Kong either now or under the Agreement with China.
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