TNAG-2168-FCO40-3105-House-of-Commons-Foreign-Affairs-Committee-inquiry-into-Hong-1990 — Page 265

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made clear at the time that Section 4(5) was intended to be used

sparingly. Government has decided to cater for the needs of public

servant and the private sector by means of the British Nationality (Hong Kong) Bill.

Agree with Committee's recommendations that war widows should be

given assurances that they can come to Britain at any time they wish

to do so (paragraph 4.22). As the Home Secretary made clear on

19 April, Government is prepared to offer an assurance that a widow

or widower of a British citizen who is still resident in Hong Kong,

who has not remarried and who does not have any other country's

citizenship will be admitted to the UK with his or her dependant

children at any time on the same terms as spouses of people settled

here.

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They

Noted Committee's belief that Government has an obligation to

provide British citizenship to non-Chinese BDTCs in Hong Kong.

The Government considered very carefully whether to make separate

provision for these people in scheme but decided not to do so.

will be eligible to apply under the scheme and their applications

will be considered on their merits. In addition, the Hong Kong

(British Nationality) Order 1986 makes provision for children and

grandchildren of former BDTCs born at 1997 to acquire British

Overseas Citizenship if they would otherwise be stateless. Have

also given specific assurance to Parliament that if the ethnic monitories come under pressure to leave Hong Kong in the future, and

had nowhere to go, we would expect government of the day to consider

their case for admission here with considerable and particular

sympathy.

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Noted Committee's recommendation that periods of study in the UK

for recognised qualifications at tertiary level or above by British

BDTCS should count towards the residence requirement for British

Citizenship (paragraph 4.24). Admission as a student does not

provide an avenue to settlement since, by definition, students are coming here for a temporary purpose.

CATAAU

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