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Hong Kong residents with UK passports seek right to live in Britain

28 June 2019 23:28 (UTC +04:00)

Samson Ling may have a British passport, but it offers him no route out of Hong Kong to a life in London as protests grow against an extradition bill that many see as an example of growing Chinese influence in the financial hub, APA reports citing Reuters.

Millions of people have taken to the streets of Hong Kong, a former British colony, in recent weeks to rally against a bill that would allow people to be sent to mainland China for trial in courts controlled by the Communist Party.

With many young people looking for routes out of Hong Kong, some campaigners say Britain should change the status of the British National (Overseas) passport, a category created after Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997.

Though BNO passports are British passports that allow a holder to visit the UK for 6 months, they do not come with an automatic right to live or work in the United Kingdom.

“We are asking for our rights as passport holders,” Ling, 59, a BN(O) passport holder who is in London to lobby the British government on the issue, told Reuters.

“The UK has left all the BNO passport holders behind, and left the Hong Kongers to stay in Hong Kong.”