London:
The UK might offer British National (Overseas) passport holders in Hong Kong a
path to UK citizenship if China does not suspend plans for the National
Security Law in the city, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said here. There are
300,000 BNO passport holders in Hong Kong and have the right to visit the UK
for up to six months without a visa, reports the BBC.
The BNO passports were issued to people in Hong Kong by the UK before the transfer of the territory to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. Announcing the possible change in policy, Raab said that the six-month limit on stays in the UK for BNO holders would be scrapped."If China continues down this path and implements this national security legislation, we will remove that six month limit and allow those BNO passport holders to come to the UK and to apply to work and study for extendable periods of 12 months and that will itself provide a pathway to future citizenship," he said. (IANS)