Britain has a duty to protect the people of Hong Kong

Editorial: China no longer recognises British national overseas passports. Our government must de-escalate diplomatic hostilities and establish the rights and status of those in the territory

If the people of Hong Kong do not wish to be Chinese citizens, they will be in limbo (Getty)

UK visas for holders of British national overseas passports in Hong Kong will be available from Sunday. The policy was designed to deter China from further infringement of the human rights of people in the special administrative region.

It has not worked. In militant mood, Beijing will no longer recognise the BNO passport as a valid travel document or form of identification. People from Hong Kong can apply for a visa to live and work in Britain for a period of some years, with the possibility of a path to British citizenship in future. The offer of a UK visa is in effect the right to refuge, which exists in international and British law in any case, as a universal human right. The visa is not equivalent to full British citizenship with the unlimited right of entry and right of abode. 

The net effect of these moves is to leave many in Hong Kong almost stateless. The rights and status they have enjoyed since 1997 when the colony was returned, rightly, to China have now been abolished by the Chinese government. The British government, however, has not fully protected them. If they do not wish to be Chinese citizens many of them will have nowhere to turn. Their BNO passports have been torn up, but they will not get British passports. It is, for them, the end of a way of life.