There are calls for the UK government to restore the right of people in Hong Kong to live and work here.
As the political turmoil in the former British colony worsens and fears of intervention by China grow, campaigners say that Britain has a moral responsibility to protect residents who hold the passports it issued at handover.
Martin Lee, a longstanding campaigner known as Hong Kong’s “father of democracy”, said such a move is “the obligation of the British government”.
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Anson Chan, formerly the second highest official in the city, said the UK should consider the issue again: “You promised Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy and basic rights and freedoms – when those are taken away from them, surely Britain has a legal and moral responsibility to deal with the consequences.”
Ahead of Hong Kong’s handover in 1997, three million people held British Dependent Territories Citizens passports, which gave them right of abode in the UK.
However, as The Guardian explains, Britain replaced these with the British Nationals (Overseas) passport, which allowed visa-free travel to the UK but did not grant the right to live or work in Britain. They became dubbed BN(O) passports - “Britain says No”.
The Financial Times says several hundred protestors rallied outside the British consulate on the weekend, demanding a full British passport.
One demonstrator said that she was planning to renew her BN(O) passport. She added: “I don’t expect Britain to give me residency, but it might help me to get somewhere else.”
Last month, Tom Tugendhat, chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, told the Financial Times that Britain should grant Hong Kong citizens with BN(O) passports full UK nationality. He said that “a few” cabinet ministers were supportive of the decision.
The late Lord Ashdown campaigned for Hong Kongers to be given the right to claim British citizenship, comparing Britain’s replacement of the right to abode with the British Nationals (Overseas) passports with the Windrush scandal. He described the move as a “betrayal”.
