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section of the Hong Kong community or whether they should compete like everybody else for the 50,000 British citizenship places which we have made
available under the British Nationality (Hong Kong)
Act 1990.
Representations have been made on behalf of this group for a number of years now and the Government gave very
careful consideration to their position when
formulating its citizenship scheme for Hong Kong in
1989. It concluded that there was no case for making
special citizenship provision for them and that remains our position today.
Let us look at the arguments that have been advanced
in favour of special treatment. First it is said that
after-1507-the time -minvrities-will-moi-have
proper nationality and passport. This refers to the
status of British National (Overseas) (BN(0)) Or British Overseas citizen (ROC) and related passports.
The British Government does not accept that these
nationality statuses are in any way inferior to BDTC
status. There are over a million people in the world
with BOC
and the BOC passport is well
established. There are
more than a half million
people in Hong Kong now with BN (0) status and the BN(0) passport is accepted throughout the world. Holders do not need entry clearance for visits to the
UK. BN(0) and BOC passports give the holders au entitlement to registration as British citizens providing they have completed five years' residence in
status
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