On 2 April, members of the Hong Kong Watch team met with the Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office) and Minister of State for Immigration, Seema Malhotra MP, alongside Charlotte Nichols MP and Sarah Hall MP, to raise concerns over the gap in the BNO visa scheme which renders children of BNO passport holders born before 1 July 1997 ineligible for the visa.
The meeting came about as a result of our consistent advocacy on this issue. Since the launch of our briefing in July last year, we have met with over 40 Members of Parliament to discuss this issue and raised our concerns with Home Office policy staff regularly. We organised a letter to the Minister with the assistance of Charlotte Nichols, Labour MP for Warrington North, and Sarah Hall, Labour MP for Warrington South, requesting a Ministerial meeting, which was supported by 13 Parliamentarians from all three major parties.
During the meeting, Charlotte Nichols MP and Sarah Hall MP highlighted the positive impact on their constituencies brought by the growing BNO Hong Konger community. Our Advisor Finn Lau shared his personal acquaintance with Hong Kongers frozen out of the scheme, and highlighted the deteriorating human rights situation in Hong Kong and the need for these individuals to flee political repression. The Minister affirmed that eligibility criteria for the BNO scheme are kept under regular review.
Previously, Hong Kong Watch campaigned for BNO visa eligibility to be expanded to include children of BNO passport holders born on or after 1 July 1997. In November 2022, the scheme was expanded to include these individuals.
However, this expansion still left a gap in the scheme for individuals born before 1 July 1997. A child born before 1 July 1997 was dependent on their parents applying for BNO status on their behalf. If the parent neglected to apply for BNO status for their children, they are ineligible for the BNO visa scheme regardless of whether their parents hold BNO status.
You can read a copy of our letter to the Minister here.
You can read our briefing on the pre-1997 gap in the BNO scheme here.
Thomas Benson, Research and Policy Advisor at Hong Kong Watch, commented:
“As a result of the gap in the BNO visa eligibility rules, many Hong Kongers have watched their families and friends flee Hong Kong while they remain left behind, with no lifeboat out of the city. Before the handover, they were children, unable to apply for BNO status for themselves. Now, they are aged 28 to 46, and at the prime working years of their life. It is only reasonable that these individuals should be able to reunite with their BNO visa holding family members in the UK.
We would like to thank the Minister for her time and consideration, and we look forward to working with her and the Home Office to ensure that this gap in the BNO visa scheme is fixed in due course.”