960403

Indians may get HK

passports after '97

HONG KONG: A senior Chinese official has signaled that the Indian minority might get Hong Kong passports after the colony reverts to China in mid-1997, easing fears they could become stateless, a leading Indian businessmen said on Wednesday.

Raj Sital, chairman of the Indian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, said on Wednesday a chamber group was in Beijing to outline their community's concerns ahead of the British colony's conversion into a Chinese Special Administrative Region (SAR).

Their main worry was their post-1997 right of abode. Sital said Lu Ping, China's top policy maker on Hong Kong, had been very positive in his response when he met the group in Beijing.

"He said it will be discussed further...to see what solutions can be come up with to solve the problem of allowing people of Indian origin in Hong Kong to apply for an SAR passport," Sital said.

Sital said Lu quoted a clause of China's nationality law on provisions for non-ethnic Chinese to apply for Chinese nationality and he said more detailed provisions would be spelled out before the sovereignty transfer on July 1, 1997.

Ethnic-Chinese permanent residents of Hong Kong are assured continued residency rights and travel documents in the SAR.

But the status of an estimated 7,000 non-Chinese, mainly Indians and Pakistanis, has remained a grey area, arousing fears they may become stateless and face travel difficulties. Many are from families that have been in Hong Kong for generations.

Britain has said it will consider sympathetically any members of the community who are left stateless or driven out when China takes over. This falls short of the ethnic minority's demand for unconditional immigration into Britain.

Minorities were among tens of thousands of Hong Kong people who rushed last weekend to apply for special British passports which carry no right of abode in Britain but allow visa-free visits to more than 80 countries including Britain.-Reuter