HC Deb 25 October 1972 vol 843 cc314-5W
Mr. Wall

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the estimated number of British passport holders and their dependants in Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia, respectively.

Sir Alec Douglas-Home

The estimated number of persons with no other citizenship who are subject to control under the Commonwealth Immigrants Act, is as follows:

Kenya 50,000
Tanzania 20,000
Zambia 6,000

Mr. Wall

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the estimated number of British passport holders and their dependants or those who are entitled to hold British passports in Malaysia, Singapore, Fiji and Hong Kong, respectively.

Sir Alec Douglas-Home

The estimated numbers of persons with no other citizenship who are subject to control under the Commonwealth Immigrants Acts are:

Malaysia 110,000
Singapore 30,000

There are a small number of persons in Fiji eligible for United Kingdom passports but in most cases that entitlement is derived from connections with British Dependencies in the Pacific and not with the United Kingdom.

Latest estimates put the number of citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies in Hong Kong at two million. The vast majority of these persons have that citizenship because of their birth in the colony and their entry to the United Kingdom is subject to control under the Commonwealth Immigrants Act, 1962. However, as Hong Kong remains a British Colony, these persons unlike those in independent Commonwealth countries, have an absolute right of abode in their present territory of residence.