TNAG-2950-FCO40-4227-Hong-Kong-visa-free-travel-for-British-Nationals-(Overseas)--1993 — Page 105

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Mr Ritchie - B2 Div,

Home Office, Lunar Hse

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(BOL)

VISA ABOLITION AGREEMENTS BETWEEN HONG KONG AND THIRD COUNTRIES

1.

MVD are in the process of providing Hong Kong with copies of all visa abolition agreements with the United Kingdom. Contrary to Annex B of the Hong Kong letter of 21 May, the United Kingdom has VAA with 40 countries and the following amendments and notes should be made to this Annex. The agreements with Turkey, Tunisia and Morocco have recently been cancelled and I can find no trace of the United Kingdom having concluded such an agreement with Iran. While we have informal and unofficial agreements to abolish visas with Bahrain, German Federal Republic, Qatar and Brazil, we have not entered into formal agreements with these countries.

2. Hong Kong will wish to know, their para 4 refers, that agreements have recently been signed with Argentina and the German Democratic Republic. BNOs are specifically mentioned and are covered in these agreements but only where the holder is entitled to readmission to the United Kingdom. While it is true that informal administrative arrangements have been agreed with some countries to cover visa free access for HKBDTCS, in many cases I am sure that visa free entry has been allowed because the countries have interpreted the VAAS to cover HKBDTCs. It is certainly true that with the current number of different British-style passports in existence some countries are unable to work out just who is covered in our present VAAS. It is for that precise reason that Austria has been requesting a renegotiation of our present VAA with them during the last 8 months. It is quite clear that in any renegotiation of a VAA as we have done with the Argentians and GDR citizens, we would have to spell out what class of British citizen is to be covered by any agreement. And therein I believe lies the difficulty when trying to negotiate new VAAS on behalf of the United Kingdom. Legal Advisers will correct me if I am wrong, but I suspect that both signatories to an agreement would expect to be able to return those nationals of the other state who are refused admission to a sovereign territory, to each other's country. This, I suspect, will also be a problem for Hong Kong trying, to negotiate their own

VAAS.

3. Hong Kong are rightly anxious to secure continued visa free

Access for BNOS after 1997 and therefore their option 2

would not satisfy this requirement

This option is certainly

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