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Friday, February 7, 2025
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UK makes citizenship offer to Hong Kong residents

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Daily US Times: Up to three million Hong Kong residents are allowed to be settled in the UK and ultimately apply for citizenship, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said.

Mr Johnson said Hong Kong’s freedoms were being violated by a new security law and those affected would be offered a “route” out of the former UK colony.

About 2.6 million other eligibles and 350,000 UK passport holders will be able to come to the UK for five years.

They will be able to apply for citizenship after a further year.

British National Overseas Passport holders in Hong Kong were granted special status in the 1980s but currently have restricted rights and are only entitled to visa-free access to the UK for six months.

All British Overseas Nationals and their dependents will be given right to remain in the UK under the government’s plan, including the right to work and study, for five years.

They will be able to apply for settled status at this piont, and after a further year, seek citizenship.

Passing a new security law by the Hong Kong authorities was a “clear and serious breach” of the 1985 Sino-British joint declaration, Boris Johnson said on Tuesday. The declaration is a legally binding agreement which set out how certain freedoms would be protected for the 50 years after China assumed sovereignty in 1997.

British National Overseas Passports do not confer nationality or the automatic right to live and work in the UK. Source: Reuters

The British Prime Minister said: “It (the security law) violates Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and threatens the freedoms and rights protected by the joint declaration.”

“We made clear that if China continued down this path we would introduce a new route for those with British National (Overseas) status to enter the UK, granting them limited leave to remain with the ability to live and work in the UK and thereafter to apply for citizenship. And that is precisely what we will do now.”

Sir Simon McDonald, the British foreign office secretary expressed the government’s “deep concern” about the new law to China during a meeting with the country’s ambassador Liu Xioming.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said while updating MPs on the details that there would be no limit on numbers or quotas and the application process would be simple.

He said: “This is a special, bespoke, set of arrangements developed for the unique circumstances we face and in light of our historic commitment to the people of Hong Kong.”

Mr Raab acknowledged there “would be little we could do to…cohesively force” China to allow British Overseas Nationals to come to the UK.

Further details of the step will be detailed “in due course”, Downing Street said.

Mr Johnson’s official spokesman said that in the meantime, British National Overseas Passport holders in Hong Kong will be able to travel to the UK immediately, subject to standard immigration checks.

British National Overseas Passport holders in Hong Kong will be able to travel to the UK immediately, subject to standard immigration checks.

You may read: US passes sanctions over Hong Kong as nations condemn new law

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