U.K. details citizenship path for three million Hong Kongers

LONDON— Britain announced Wednesday that it was extending residency rights to up to three million Hong Kongers eligible for the British National Overseas passport, stressing that it would uphold its historic duty to a former British colony after Beijing imposed a sweeping new national security law in Hong Kong.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told lawmakers that Britain was changing its immigration rules to allow BNO passport holders a special route to citizenship.

Eligible individuals from Hong Kong will have the right to live and work in the U.K. for five years without the current sixmonth limit.

After five years, those who wish to will be allowed to apply for settled status and then again for citizenship 12 months after that.

Britain’s government estimates there are around 2.9 million British National Overseas passport-holders currently in Hong Kong. It says its extended residency rules would apply to them and their immediate dependents. No exact date was given for the new rule’s implementation, and Raab said further details will be announced later.

The announcement came hours after China imposed a sweeping new national security law in Hong Kong that Britain calls a flagrant breach of China’s international obligations and a “clear and serious violation” of the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

Raab said Tuesday that Beijing’s decision to impose the security law on Hong Kong lay in “direct conflict with China’s international obligations.”

“We fought very hard and we negotiated with the Chinese back in the 1980s to have the freedom for peaceful protest and freedom of expression to be respected,” Raab said.

“China, through this national security legislation, is not living up to its promises to the people of Hong Kong. We will live up to our promises to them.”