§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proposal he has to grant full British citizenship to members of non-Chinese ethnic minorities in Hong Kong who will be without a right of abode elsewhere after 1997; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Charles WardleMy right hon. and learned Friend has no plans for new legislation to provide British citizenship for this group. All British members of the non-Chinese ethnic minorities in Hong Kong will be entitled to retain or acquire an appropriate form of British nationality after 1997 and will be assured of full British consular protection. They are guaranteed the right of abode in Hong Kong, and the Government have given an assurance, repeated on many occasions, that if, against all expectations, members of this group came under pressure to leave Hong Kong and had nowhere else to go, the Government of the day would be expected to consider with considerable and particular sympathy their case for admission to the United Kingdom.
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