Canada raises HK alarm

Hong Kong: Hong Kong has denied access to foreign consulates seeking to provide assistance to detained dual nationals in the global financial hub, the Canadian foreign ministry said yesterday.

Hong Kong has traditionally accepted dual nationals, unlike its Chinese sovereign, but it has the right to deny consular access under treaties signed when the former British colony returned to China in 1997.

Five diplomats said yesterday, however, that consular access to dual nationals had largely been granted by local authorities for two decades — but that was now changing.

Canada yesterday said it received a first notification of a Canadian dualnational prisoner in Hong Kong being required to declare their nationality on January 18. It did not identify the prisoner or the reason they were in jail.

‘‘We are aware of more such incidences involving dual nationals of other countries,” Canadian foreign ministry spokeswoman Christelle Chartrand said.

There are about 300,000 people from Hong Kong with Canadian passports.

Hong Kong Government Security Bureau spokeswoman Florence Wong said “unless a Hong Kong resident has made an application to the city’s Immigration Department and was approved for the declaration of change of nationality, he is still a Chinese national’’. — Reuters