David Pearey Esq
SED
FCO
Der Darril,
RESTRICTED
THE CONVENT,
GIBRALTAR.
HKO 340/1
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
3 0 OCT 1990
DESK OFFICER INDEX
PA
391
16 October 1990
RIGHTS OF RESIDENCE FOR HONG KONG PEOPLE
(393)
1. Thank you for your letter of 4 October! Since we spoke, the Governor has asked the Chief Minister for further clarification of his proposals. I hope that the following will give you a bit more to go on in deciding how to reconcile Gibraltar's wishes with UK Government's policies.
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2. Part of the problem is that there seems to be a good deal of confusion between the right of residence and the right to
Under a passport. Gibraltar's Immigration Control Ordinance the Governor has discretion to grant right of residence whenever he believes it is in Gibraltar's interest for him to do so. But the right of residence in Gibraltar does not carry with it any right of abode in the UK. We are in correspondence separately with Migration and Visa Department about the possibility of establishing a common travel area for Gibraltar and the UK, but even if this goes ahead it will be on the basis that freedom of movement will depend on the returnability of individuals to Gibraltar.
3. At the moment, we are only considering giving Hong Kong people right of residence in Gibraltar. But after they have been here for 5 years, they will become eligible to apply for British Dependent Territories Citizenship by virtue of a connection with Gibraltar, and although we have recently decided we must take a very hard line on naturalisation (because of the pressure from Moroccans), exceptions will have to be made for stateless people - a category which presumably will include Hong Kongers post 1997. So by accepting Hong Kong people for residence now we are in effect accepting them for ultimate naturalisation.
4. A BDTC (Gibraltar) passport is of course a European Community passport and gives the holder all the rights of free movement and settlement throughout the European Community (including the UK) which go with any other EC passport. In addition, the British Nationality Act (81) gives Gibraltar BDTCs the right to acquire full British citizenship on application. All of this means in practice that any Hong Kong people given right of residence in Gibraltar at this stage will almost certainly qualify eventually for citizenship and the right of abode in the UK - though the same is true of course for any Hong Kongers given passports by any other European Community country (at least as far as right of abode is concerned).
RESTRICTED
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