TNAG-1748-FCO40-2467-Visit-by-Sir-Geoffrey-Howe--Secretary-of-State-for-Foreign-a-1988 — Page 116

CONFIDENTIAL

(b) One man had a black suit (perceived to be a waiter's uniform) and details of restaurants in his luggage, which led

officers to doubt his claim to be a visitor; the other initially

claimed that he had no contacts in the UK but was found to have a

list of UK telephone numbers in his possession.

4.

In accordance with the established procedure of returning

those refused entry to their place of departure, the police

attempted to put the two men on a flight back to Paris. They

resisted this action and police used reasonable force to restrain

them. The captain then refused to take them on that flight.

they had onward tickets to Hong Kong the next day, they were detained until then and then put on a flight back to Hong Kong.

As

5.

Given the continuing doubts in Hong Kong about the validity of the BN (0) passport, these incidents have received extensive press

coverage. It has been alleged that the individuals were refused

entry because they carried BN (0) passports. There is no question of

discrimination between holders of BN (0) and BDTCs. Last year, of

61,300 Hong Kong passport holders travelling to Britain, 310 were

denied entry. At Dover East the figure was 67 of 2246.

BN (0) PASSPORTS

6.

A diplomatic campaign was pursued in 1986 and 1987 to explain the new BN (0) status to foreign governments. The exercise was essentially explanatory, although as a confidence building measure for Hong Kong consumption we tried tactfully to elicit public

expressions of support from governments for the measures we were

taking to enable Hong Kong British Dependent Territories citizens to

continue to hold a British passport after 1997.

7.

These efforts were in the main successful. Most of the

countries which are the main destinations for travellers from

Hong Kong have offered their public support. Many countries (eg most eastern European and Arab countries) have not responded and

indeed we did not expect them to. But no country has said it will

not accept the BN (O) passport for travel to and from its territory.

CONFIDENTIAL