RETENTION OF CITIZENSHIP OF UNITED KINGDOM AND COLONIES BY CERTAIN CITIZENS OF FIJI (Hansard, 17 July 1970)

§ The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Anthony Royle)

On Second Reading, a number of questions were asked about this Clause and, in view of the interest shown in it, I should like briefly to enlarge upon its effect.

There are certain citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies resident in Fiji who will not automatically become citizens of Fiji at independence, because they do not have the requisite connections by birth or otherwise. They will therefore retain their citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies when Fiji becomes independent. This category is thought to number no more than a few hundred.

There will be some citizens of other Commonwealth countries who have registered in Fiji since 5th May, this year, as citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies. The Fiji delegation at the conference was not willing to extend Fiji citizenship automatically to such cases. It argued that the five-year residence qualification for such registration under the British nationality legislation conflicted with the seven-year period of residence required under existing Fiji immigration law to qualify for permanent residence. As a compromise, it was finally agreed that those registered by 5th May, the date on which the conference report was signed, should be accorded Fiji citizenship automatically.

Those registering after 5th May and up to 9th October will not therefore have 1873 Fiji citizenship automatically. I am informed that the number of persons who have been registered in Fiji between 6th May and 16th July as citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies is 24. I should add that I understand that 88 applications are still pending. All these people would be entitled to apply after independence for citizenship of Fiji if they had seven years' residence.

There is another category of persons whose position is more complex and I am afraid that this statement may sound complex. These people have the connections with Fiji that will give them Fiji citizenship automatically at independence but at the same time they have the connections with this country or with one of its remaining dependencies which would qualify them under Clause 3 to retain the citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies which they already possess. They will thus have dual citizenship unless or until they renounced one or the other. I emphasise that the terms of Clause 3 are standard and have appeared in many previous independence Acts.

People who will have dual citizenship at independence will include about 1,500 Banabans and some children born in Fiji of British parents. There may also be small numbers of other persons born in Fiji whose fathers or paternal grandfathers were born either in the United Kingdom or one of the remaining dependencies. These people whose connections are with other dependencies would be subject to control under the Commonwealth Immigrant Act. There is no evidence that any of them have a desire to migrate to this country.