TNAG-2947-FCO40-4223-Third-Country-Right-of-Abode-Schemes-for-Hong-Kong-1993 — Page 79

ET MON

MINISTER

DROIT

OF STATE

hcc Mr Barnes

Mr Rawsthorne

Mr Walmsley

Mr Kelly

Mr Morris (HK Dept, FCO)

Mr Carter (SE Dept, FCO)

HOME OFFICE

QUEEN ANNE'S GATE

LONDON SWIH 9AT

9

341/1

HiCD 62+ 341

2 2 FEB 1993

YEFICES

INDE,

Dear Jack,

ધર્મ 龜飯糖料

15

February 1993

Miss Blissfite please (next week)

ABT 19/2.

Ms &

Aa.

jungle

I have now been able to look in to the reports, about which you spoke to me, that Gibraltar was planning to give British Nationality to residents of Hong Kong.

Under the British Nationality (Hong Kong) Act 1990, up to 50,000 people and their dependents are being given British Citizenship so as to give them the confidence to remain in Hong Kong, secure in the knowledge that they could come to the United Kingdom if they so wished.

It is an Act which provides for a specific arrangement between Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. There are difficulties about making similar arrangements between Gibraltar and Hong Kong.

Gibraltar is a British Dependent Territory as is Hong Kong. A person, who is a citizen of a British Dependent Territory, cannot apply to become a citizen of another British Dependent Territory because the British Nationality Act 1981 does not recognise these as separate citizenships.

A Hong Kong British Dependent Territory Citizen could not, therefore, become a Gibraltar British Dependent Territory Citizen without first renouncing British Dependent Territories Citizenship. He can only do this if he has acquired, or is about to acquire, some other citizenship. Anybody from Hong Kong, who is not a British Dependent Territory Citizen but who wished to become a Gibraltar British Dependent Territories Citizen, would need to fulfil the residence requirements which are laid down in the British Nationality Act 1981.

The Lord Merrivale

House of Lords

London

SW1A OPW

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