UK mulls citizenship offer over Hong Kong security law
The announcement came soon after a joint statement by the UK, US, Canada and Australia expressing “deep concern” over the new law that has prompted clashes in Hong Kong.
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab and home secretary Priti Patel are exploring options to grant full citizenship to people in Hong Kong who have ‘British National (Overseas)’ status as one of the responses to Beijing imposing a security law in the former British colony.
The announcement came soon after a joint statement by the UK, US, Canada and Australia expressing “deep concern” over the new law that has prompted clashes in Hong Kong.
The BNO status is not full British citizenship. The status is for people who were a British overseas territories citizen by connection with Hong Kong before the handover to China on July 1, 1997. Certain rights and freedoms were to be ensured under the handover agreement within the ‘one country, two systems’ framework.
Raab said: “Currently they (BNO passport holders) only have the right to come to the UK for six months. If China continues down this path and implements this national security legislation we will change that status, and we will remove that six-month limit and allow those BNO passport holders to come to the UK and to apply to work and study for extendable periods of 12 months and that would itself provide a pathway to future citizenship”.
“If they implement and apply this national security legislation in the terms that have been described, we will change the BNO passport holder status and the arrangements for them in the way that I’ve just described”, he added.
Patel tweeted: “Deeply concerned at China’s proposals for legislation to national security in Hong Kong. If imposed, @DominicRaab & I will explore options for a path to citizenship for BNO passport holders. UK will continue to defend the rights & freedoms of the people of Hong Kong”.
The four-country joint statement by Raab, Australian foreign minister Marise Payne, Canadian foreign minister François-Philippe Champagne, and US secretary of state Michael Pompeo said: “Hong Kong has flourished as a bastion of freedom. The international community has a significant and long-standing stake in Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability”.
“Direct imposition of national security legislation on Hong Kong by the Beijing authorities, rather than through Hong Kong’s own institutions as provided for under Article 23 of the Basic Law, would curtail the Hong Kong people’s liberties, and in doing so, dramatically erode Hong Kong’s autonomy and the system that made it so prosperous”.
They added that China’s decision to impose the new law on Hong Kong was in direct conflict with its international obligations under the principles of the legally-binding, UN-registered Sino-British Joint Declaration.
The four foreign ministers said: “The world’s focus on a global pandemic requires enhanced trust in governments and international cooperation. Beijing’s unprecedented move risks having the opposite effect”.
“As Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity are jeopardised by the new imposition, we call on the Government of China to work with the Hong Kong SAR Government and the people of Hong Kong to find a mutually acceptable accommodation that will honour China’s international obligations under the UN-filed Sino-British Joint Declaration.”
