TNAG-1566-FCO40-2131-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-and-passports-Hong-Kong-(Br-1986 — Page 159

HONG KONG

DRAFT ORDER IN COUNCIL

NOTES ON ARTICLES

ARTICLE 2: CONNECTIONS WITH HONG KONG

F2

1.

Article 2 identifies all British Dependent Territories citizens

(BDTCs) who are such by virtue of a connection with Hong Kong. But

it does not follow that everybody who has a Hong Kong connection

within Article 2 is necessarily a BDTC: some may have renounced

their BDTC status:

others may not have acquired it in the first

place. The Order has no effect at all on such people. By virtue of

Article 3 it can apply only to people who are BDTCs on 30 June 1997

by virtue of any connection mentioned in Article 2.

2.

The list of Hong Kong connections in Article 2 gives effect to

the provisions about nationality in the Schedule to the Hong Kong

Act 1985. The Schedule provides that the Order in Council may make

provision whereby British Dependent Territories citizenship cannot

be retained or acquired on or after 1 July 1997 by virtue of a connection

with Hong Kong.

3. Article 2(1) defines those people who are to be taken as having

a connection with Hong Kong for the purposes of the Order. Because

of the variety of ways in which a person may have become a BDTC it

is not sufficient simply to refer in the Order to "a connection with

Hong Kong" without saying precisely what such a connection may be.

The Article therefore defines the ways in which a person may have

become connected with Hong Kong. It encompasses all the Hong Kong

BDTCs listed in Annex 2 to the White Paper (copy attached).

4.

Article 2(1)(a) brings within the Order BDTCs born, naturalised

or registered in Hong Kong or found abandoned there as newborn infants

or their children. Anyone born in Hong Kong before 1983, or

naturalised or registered there before that date became a BDTC on

1 January 1983 under section 23 of the British Nationality Act 1981.

Article 2(1)(a) read in conjunction with Article 2(3) is so framed

as to ensure that a BDTC born in Hong Kong on or after

1 January 1983 will not lose his BDTC status in 1997 if

neither parent is at the time of the birth settled in Hong Kong

or a Hong Kong BDTC.

For example, a child born in Hong

F.2.1