HK reassures Indonesia over travel documents
HK reassures Indonesia over travel documents
HONG KONG (Reuter): Hong Kong authorities assured Jakarta yesterday that travel documents would remain valid after the British colony reverts to China, making it unnecessary to send home 60,000 Hong Kong people now working in Indonesia.
The assurance from Hong Kong's immigration department came after an immigration spokesman in Jakarta said Indonesia would ask the Hong Kong citizens to leave by June because their papers might not be valid after July 1 this year.
"The people, who are mostly workers, will have to leave Indonesia by June for Hong Kong, where their documents will be authorized by the Chinese government," the spokesman said.
"The people can return to Indonesia again once their documents have been authorized by the Chinese government."
But Hong Kong immigration spokesman Eric Chan told Reuters the two countries had been in contact over the report and that Indonesia now understood no further endorsement was needed.
The British and Chinese governments had signed an agreement in 1986 that the Certificate of Identity (CI) travel document would remain valid after the July 1 handover, until the documents expire, Chan said. The documents have a 10-year validity.
"So there is no question that the Hong Kong CI will cease to be valid on July 1, 1997," Chan said.
"All CI holders will have right of abode in Hong Kong. In other words they can return to Hong Kong any time they want."
The Indonesian spokesman said the workers were originally to have left by the end of March but had been granted a three-month reprieve. He said the CI papers held by the 60,000 people would no longer be valid after the sovereignty change in Hong Kong.
The document is used by 1.3 million people who have become Hong Kong permanent residents but who have no claim to a national passport issued by any country.
Most governments regard it as a "stateless" person's travel document. Its holders must obtain visas before traveling.
The document will gradually be replaced by a new Hong Kong passport that will be issued by the post-colonial government of the "Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR)". But it will take time to issue new SAR passports to large numbers of people.
The transitional situation has confused some governments who are anxious about possible immigration tangles. Last December Indonesia turned away more than 200 travelers from Hong Kong even though they had prior visas.