TNAG-2940-FCO40-4216-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-ethnic-minorities-1993 — Page 118

05 MAR

93 16:29 HOME OFFICE SCU 051 231 1373

P.1

b.

c.

d.

e.

apply for Chinese citizenship.

Their ties are with Hong Kong rather than the UK and the Government has considered that the important thing is to secure their position in Hong Kong rather than to confer British citizenship.

They could not in any case acquire British citizenship outside of

of the British Nationality Scheme without further legislation amending the British Nationality Act 1981 since they do not meet the statutory UK residence requirements.

Scheme beyond

further primary

the of

British

50,000 Principal

It would not be possible without legislation to increase the scale Nationality beneficiaries to accommodate the ethnic minorities. HMG are against reopening this issue.

an

Even though the total number of beneficiaries under the Scheme (including dependants) will be less than the 225,000 estimated as a maximum this does not mean

225,000 was that there will be spare places. illustrative figure only. 50,000 was the figure enshrined in legislation and this is the key figure which the Government is committed to.

Proposed response

There is Vely

le that is new in any of the points made in the Subcommittee's report and we see little option but for the We Secretary for Security to repeat the arguments listed above.

Since we cannot really have very little room for manoeuvre. grant citizenship under the 1981 Act the only citizenship options are the Selection Scheme or some new piece of legislation aimed In our view the case for specifically at the ethnic minorities. tailor-made legislation is very thin, even if it were desirable, and it would not be possible at this stage to revamp the Scheme to give preference to the ethnic minorities.