Britain offers passport holders in Hong Kong visa-free travel for up to 12 months after China rubber-stamps controversial national security law
- British Nationals (Overseas) do not have the automatic right to live or work in the UK, but can currently travel here without a visa for up to six months
- Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said that would be extended to 12 months unless China suspended the new security law
- Britain joined a wave of condemnation after the National People’s Congress approved controversial new security laws
Britain offered stronger rights to its passport holders in Hong Kong yesterday after China rubber-stamped controversial new security laws.
More than 300,000 British National (Overseas) passport holders will be able to travel to Britain without a visa for up to 12 months.
They could then apply for UK citizenship – amid fears the new legislation will undermine human rights in the former British colony.
Britain joined a wave of condemnation after the National People’s Congress approved the legislation.
Riot police detain a protester during a demonstration against Beijing’s national security legislation in Causeway Bay in Hong Kong, Sunday, May 24, 2020
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and counterparts from the US, Australia and Canada warned the new laws ‘would curtail the Hong Kong people’s liberties’.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the law meant Hong Kong was no longer autonomous from China and its special trading status should be revoked – a serious blow to its standing as a financial hub.
China warned the US to ‘stop meddling’. Beijing says the law will defend its national security following pro-democracy demonstrations.
But critics claim it has effectively ended the ‘one country, two systems’ principle agreed in the 1997 handover treaty with Britain.
More than 300,000 people hold British National (Overseas) passports, granted to those permanent residents of Hong Kong who were classed as British Dependent Territories citizens before the 1997 handover to China.
They do not have the automatic right to live or work in the UK, but can travel here without a visa for up to six months.
Mr Raab said that would be extended to 12 months unless China suspended the new security law.
In the joint letter with his international counterparts, he said Hong Kong had flourished as a ‘bastion of freedom’.’
Pro-democracy protesters are arrested by police in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong on May 24, 2020
The letter said: ‘The proposed law would undermine the One Country, Two Systems framework.
‘It also raises the prospect of prosecution in Hong Kong for political crimes, and undermines existing commitments to protect the rights of Hong Kong people.’