TNAG-2187-FCO40-3124-Hong-Kong-British-National-(Overseas)-(BN(O))-passports-1990 — Page 18

HK0340/3

DM Landsman

SED

RECEL

STAY

23 OCT 1990

OFFICEA

INC

PA

FILE ON(O)

Reference

RY Action Taken

1. As a BN (0) passport holder,

holder, Mrs Clements does indeed

require a visa to enter Portugal. Mr Clements admits that

is was an "oversight" on their part not to get one before

they left London. This is the first we have heard of Hong Kongers having problems with Portuguese immigration.

It may be that they take a tough line with any visa national and

do not allow visas to be issued on arrival as a matter of

policy. I should point out that Hong Kong have been pressing for visa abolition with EC countries but Portugal is one of

the ones which do still require them.

2.

Consular Department have had previous experience in

dealing with similar letters from people refused entry because they had no visa, and their standard reply is that

the onus is on the traveller to check on the requirements

before their journey, and that this advice is also contained at the back of all British passports. HMG cannot hope to influence another country's immigration rules in such individual cases. It is possible that if Mr Clements'

travel agent gave the wrong advice he may have grounds for a

claim against them, but clearly he has none against the

Portuguese Government. (One would have thought that after his previous "oversight" in Yugoslavia he would have had the

sense to check before flying!)

3.

One misconception that you may wish to correct is the

claim regarding Macao and Portuguese nationality.

As you know, in early 1988 Portugal began to issue EC common format passports to their nationals in Macao and this led to the

belief that Portugal was granting citizenship to all

Macanese. This was not the case; it did not reflect any change in Portuguese nationality laws. Portuguese nationals of Macao have always had right of entry to Metropolitan

Portugal.

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