TNAG-2363-FCO40-3434-Visits-by-MPs-from-the-UK-to-Hong-Kong-1992 — Page 16

Mr. Wilds

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LONDON SWIH 9AT

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PARLIAMENTARY UNDER

SECRETARY OF STATE

21 November 1991

Dear Melden,

BRITISH NATIONALITY ACT 1981: HONG KONG

Thank you for your letter of 16 September about the eligibility of a

group of some 213 children resident in Hong Kong for registration as British citizens under section 3(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981.

I do of course sympathise with the position of these children and their families. It is quite understandable that the parents, being British citizens and having younger children who are British citizens, should want their older children also to hold this citizenship. This situation, however, is neither new nor unique to Hong Kong. Changes in legislation often mean that people whose position is determined under new legislation are in a different position from those falling to be determined under previous legislation.

In some respects

respects the younger children might be regarded as fortunate to have been able to acquire British citizenship as the sole result in many cases of their parents, as citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies by birth in Hong Kong, having at some time prior to

to 1983

1983 spent five years in the United Kingdom. Neither they nor the older children are likely to have other ancestral or residential connection with this country and the fact that different citizenships are held within the same family does not seem to me to justify overriding one of the key criteria in registering minors under section 3(1), which is that

that the child's future should be seen clearly to lie in this country.

Nor can I accept that the different arrangements for registering minors under the British Nationality (Hong Kong) Act 1990 mean that our policy on section 3(1) is now inequitable as far as Hong Kong is concerned or (considering the relatively small numbers involved) that it is contrary to the Government's efforts to persuade key workers to remain in the Colony. The Home Secretary and I both made it clear during the passage of the

/1990 Act

The Rt Hon The Earl of Caithness Foreign and Commonwealth Office

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