§ Mr. ColmanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department(a) when Tibetans were first classed as Chinese nationals for asylum purposes in the UK, (b) by which Government Department the decision was taken and (c) if Tibetans are classified as Chinese nationals by other EU member states; and if he will make a statement. [160504]
§ Mrs. RocheThe 1951 Refugee Convention requires that, unless stateless, a person's claim to refugee status be assessed in relation to the country of which they are a national. The United Kingdom does not recognise China's claims of sovereignty over Tibet, but recognises that Tibet is not independent, and Tibetans hold Chinese nationality. This has been the position argued y the Foreign and Commonwealth Office since the 1951 annexation of Tibet by China. Further, an individual may claim asylum on the basis of persecution by the Chinese authorities because of their Tibetan ethnicity, but at the time and place of their claimed persecution they are held to be Chinese nationals.
Therefore, the classification of Tibetan in the context of nationality is independent of the consideration of individual asylum claims. This has been the approach adopted in all available United Kingdom asylum statistics. No other European member state classes Tibetans as a separate nationality for asylum purposes.