Welcome to Britain? The big questions in Boris Johnson’s vague plan for Hong Kong’s BN(O) holders

It is an awkward scene familiar to many Hongkongers: at an airport overseas, an immigration officer looks at a burgundy-coloured passport embossed with the British coat of arms, while the bearer of the document braces for the inevitable confusion and embarrassment.

“British?” the officer asks, with a hint of suspicion.

“Hmmm, no – I’m from Hong Kong,” the traveller replies.

The officer’s eyebrows rise higher, but after a flurry of typing he finally waves the passport holder through.

If the holder is entering Britain – the issuer of the “British passport” – he or she will be spared of the questioning but given a stamp saying that they have been denied “employment and recourse to public funds” – a reminder that they are anything but British.