TNAG-1405-FCO40-1880-Future-of-Hong-Kong-passports-and-visas-1985 — Page 100

CONFIDENTIAL

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GVV EEC 349/1

VISA ABOLITION AGREEMENTS: IMPLICATIONS OF CHANGES IN PASSPORT FORMATS AND RELATED MATTERS

1. MVD is grateful for the copies of various minutes by HKD and other departments about the complex matters arising from the creation of the national status of BN (0); matters consequential upon the introduction of the common format passport (cfp) and look-alike passports for certain classes of British nationals and the question of the proposal to modify frontier controls within the EC.

2.

MVD's interest is, of course, centred on the question of maintaining the benefits to British passport holders of visa abolition agreements. In practice this means persons who do not possess Right of Abode in the United Kingdom. As you know, we are not generally seeking to renegotiate agreements, most of which date from before the introduction of restrictions on the entry of certain British nationals into the UK, since up until now we have persuaded the majority of countries concerned that the changes in the British Nationality Act since the signing of the visa abolition agreements has not affected the status of the persons concerned for travel purposes to third countries. However, as you are aware, the Netherlands Government have formally asked us to negotiate a new agreement.

3.

A vital part of any agreement is the Annex in which is set out the description of the passports whose holders are exempt from a visa requirement. For obvious reasons this list should be easily understood by officials responsible for frontier controls. We have watched, with some dismay, how complex this list is likely to become as a result of developments over Hong Kong. The problem is, however, not exclusive to Hong Kong. Indeed we fear that the sheer size and complexity of the list will constitute a serious obstacle to the negotiation of new agreements or, indeed, to efforts to persuade other Governments that nothing has changed.

CONFIDENTIAL

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