2
As a consequence the Hong Kong Act was passed and received
Royal Assent in April last year. Paragraph 2 of the
Sechedule to the Act allows for provision to be made
by Order in Council for the ending on 1 July 1997 of
British Dependent Territories citizenship for those
having such citizenship through a connection with
Hong Kong, and for their acquisition of a new form
of nationality, the holders of which will be known
as British Nationals (Overseas). The paragraph
also allows provision to be made for the avoidance
of statelessness.
It is important for the House to remember the whole time that
what we can do so far as nationality is concerned is confined by the Hong Kong Act: the framework has already been set by the Act and the Order in Council must keep within that framework. Its role is not to reopen questions already
considered and approved by the House, but to establish the detailed arrangements which will be necessary to give effect to
the provisions set out in the Agreement and the Act. Further-
more, neither that Agreement nor the Act in any way alter the decision initially taken in 1961, and confirmed in subsequent legislation, that British nationals in Hong Kong are subject
to United Kingdom immigration control. It is the Government's
general policy to maintain the effectiveness of that control and the case for making concessions to any particular group of people, whether in Hong Kong or elsewhere, has to be judged
not in isolation but in the context of the Government's general policy and the pleas that many people throughout the world
/make
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