FILE PHOTO: Britain’s Secretary of State for Foreign affairs Dominic Raab arrives in Downing Street, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), London, Britain, May 21, 2020. REUTERS/John Sibley/File Photo
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will give greater visa rights to British national overseas (BNO) passport holders from Hong Kong unless China suspends its proposed security laws, foreign minister Dominic Raab said in an interview reported by the BBC on Thursday.
“In relation to BNO passport holders, as you know currently they only have the right to come to the UK for six months. If China continues down this path and implements this national security legislation, we will change that status,” Raab said, according to a tweet from BBC reporter James Landale.
“And we will remove that six-month limit and allow those BNO passport holders to come to the UK and to apply to work and study for extendable periods of 12 months and that will itself provide a pathway to future citizenship.”
Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton, writing by William James; editing by Stephen Addison
