TNAG-2185-FCO40-3122-Ethnic-minorities-in-Hong-Kong-1990 — Page 173

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1A 2AH

(12)

S M Bux Esq

118 Waterloo Road

Flat 1A Kowloon

Hong Kong

Pa

Telephone 01-

HER 340/2

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

2 MAR 1990

DESK OFFICER Батера

INDEX

ISTRY

TOYACP

8 March 1990 Actici.

ethnic minorities file

ра

Thank you for your letter of 19 February to the Prime Minister about applying for British citizenship. I have been asked to

reply.

Citizens of the UK and colonies, as they were before 1983, and British Dependent Territories Citizens as they became after

1 January 1983, have not had the right of abode in the United Kingdom since 1962.

As you were born in Hong Kong, you have the right of abode there and will continue to have it beyond 1997.

a

The Immigration Department in Hong Kong will be able to advise

If you think that you qualify for registration as you on this. British citizen the Immigration Department in Hong Kong will also be able to give you the necessary forms and explain the procedures.

You mention in you letter about the possibility of becoming stateless after 1997. In recognition of the particular concern of the ethnic minorities in Hong Kong, the Government have already taken steps to reassure them about their positions after 1997. Provisions have been made for the children and grandchildren of British Dependent Territories Citizens born after 1997 to acquire British Overseas Citizenship if they would. otherwise be stateless. The Government have also given specific assurances in the British Parliament that if, against all expectations, the ethnic minorities came under pressure to leave Hong Kong in the future, and have nowhere to go, the Government would consider sympathetically their case for admission to the United Kingdom.