TNAG-2629-FCO40-3820-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-British-National-(Overseas)-1992 — Page 66

E.R.

Don't

Non-sty

visitor must be cleared for entry at the external frontier. Their border guards cannot

be expected to know the nuances of the UK working holidaymaker scheme. Hence it

would be in the interests of effective EC frontier controls for a working holidaymaker

to be required to hold a UK entry clearance.

No!

12. On the basis of the statistics on switching given earlier B2 believes that there

is a good case for a no-switching provision. As explained above about 20% of all

working holidaymakers are switchers. A no-switching provision for visa nationals only

would catch, say, Nigerians, but leave Malaysians and Hong Kong BDTCs unaffected,

and would be difficult to justify. A no-switching provision across the board on the other

hand would be difficult to justify and enforce if it were not backed up by a requirement

for entry clearance. Thus the cases for a comprehensive entry clearance requirement

and for a no-switching requirement reinforce each other.

EC considerations

13.

Whatever the course EC harmonization might take and however long the process,

early moves to plug loopholes in our current working holidaymaker arrangements should

take the immediate pressure off us and also allow us to contribute to the discussion with

other Member States with at least an existing system that we believe is workable. We

do not believe the harmonisation procedure requires these changes to be delayed.

Nationalities covered by the scheme

14. If the scheme is tightened up as proposed one could argue that it should now be

opened up to nationalities other than Commonwealth countries. In its turn this raises

the question of the long term future of the UK's youth mobility schemes. This is

discussed in detail in the annex to this paper.

15. As explained in the annex and indicated earlier in this paper B2 believes that in

the long term youth mobility schemes should as far as possible be based upon the idea

of reciprocity within the context of "worthwhile cultural exchange". However there will

probably always be exceptions to this general policy. For example for historical or

political reasons Ministers might see benefit to the UK in permitting young people to

come here from a specific country whereas there is no realistic prospect of reciprocity,