British Dependent Territories citizens to be given British Citizenship
20 May 2002
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On 21st May 2002, the British Overseas Territories Act will come into force. It grants the right of citizenship to all inhabitants of Britain's overseas territories and formally abolishes the term 'colony'.
It allow those people who were British Dependent citizens to live, train and work in Britain, or anywhere else in the European Union.
Many of the inhabitants had full British citizenship before 1981, when the Conservative government took the right away from all dependent territories in order to stop residents of Hong Kong moving to Britain prior to being handed over to China.
Those rights have now been restored. However, British citizens will not have reciprocal rights to live and work in the former colonies. This proviso has been included at the request of the former colonies to safeguard the social and cultural makeup of those countries.