HONG KONG – Britain told Hong Kong today that it has “no right” to order other countries not to accept a United Kingdom travel document for a popular youth working scheme after the city confirmed having made the request to several other nations.
The row is the latest diplomatic spat that centres on the British National (Overseas) passport, known as BNO, as China imposes a sweeping crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong.
The BNO document is a legacy of Hong Kong’s handover to China by colonial Britain in 1997.
Until recently, it allowed Hong Kong residents born before 1997 greater travel privileges to the UK, but no working or settling rights.
After Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the city last year, however, Britain began offering a pathway to citizenship for BNO passport holders and their families.
In response, Hong Kong and China said it will no longer recognise it as a legitimate travel document.
Late yesterday, Hong Kong confirmed media reports that it recently wrote to 14 consulates telling them not to allow young people to use their BNO passports to apply for working holiday visas in Europe, North America and parts of Asia.
“Hong Kong participants in the working holiday scheme should be confined to holders of the HKSAR passport,” said a spokesman with the city’s Labour Department in a statement.
That sparked anger in Britain, which said countries have the right to make their own rules on which travel documents they accept for identification.
“The Hong Kong government has no authority to dictate which passports foreign governments recognise as valid,” said a spokesman for the British Foreign Office today.
“The UK will continue to issue BNO passports, which remain valid travel documents.”
The 14 countries that have signed working holiday agreements with Hong Kong are Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and Britain.
One Western diplomat here told AFP that most of these countries are still accepting BNO passports for working holiday schemes, and that the Hong Kong government has no way to enforce its request.
Hong Kong residents are no longer allowed to enter the city and mainland China with BNO passports.
The ban has a limited practical effect as Hong Kongers leave airports using identification cards, and most have Hong Kong passports.
However, it has impacted a small number of largely South Asian Hong Kong residents who possess only BNO passports, and are not considered “Chinese nationals” by authorities. – AFP, March 26, 2021
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