HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
18 November 1992
115
香港立法局
一九九二年十一月十八日
115
many other non-Chinese citizens have chosen to make Hong Kong, not the United Kingdom, their home.
Let me now give some facts. To the best of our knowledge some 20 000 long-term Hong Kong residents belong to the ethnic minorities. Most are nationals of India and Pakistan and hold passports from those countries. At a rough estimate — and here my figures are slightly different from Mr Howard YOUNG's about 7 000 are either Hong Kong British Dependent Territory citizens or British Overseas citizens. Both groups hold passports which assure them of British consular protection world- wide. Additionally, a very small number, and we believe this number to be only about 100, are technically stateless. Under Article 24(4) of the Basic Law, they are guaranteed the right of abode, that is, the right to enter and not to be deported from Hong Kong after 1997. Those who wish to secure that right before 1997 may do so by becoming BDTCs. Thus this debate concerns perhaps 7 000 to 8 000 people.
Some Members have given the impression that the Government has not carefully examined the position of the ethnic minorities. We have done so. We did so during the drafting of the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law and in 1990 United Kingdom Ministers considered the question during the parliamentary debate on the British Nationality Scheme. They concluded and in preparing for today's debate, we have now established that this remains their view that the non-Chinese ethnic minorities' position after 1997 is adequately protected both in the Joint Declaration and in the Basic Law, which guarantees them the right of abode in the Hong Kong SAR. In addition, the Hong Kong British Nationality Order 1986 enshrines the categorical assurance that the children and grandchildren of those members of the ethnic minorities, who are British Dependent Territory citizens prior to 1 July 1997, will have British overseas citizenship if they would otherwise be stateless. Clearly, therefore, and I cannot stress this too strongly, no member of any of the minority communities need fear that they, their children or their grandchildren will be stateless.
I know that some members of these communities feel that these assurances are not enough. They want further guarantees of their security should events make it difficult for them to remain in Hong Kong. May I remind Members, as Mr ARCULLI already has, that the British Government has repeatedly given the assurance that if any solely British national with no claim to Chinese nationality came under severe pressure to leave Hong Kong, the government of the day would consider with and I quote, "considerable and particular sympathy their case for admission to
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