Edited sentence: Colonials, other than Falkland Islanders and Gibraltarians, were thus striped of full British Citizenship, and lost the right of abode and the right to work in the United Kingdom.The British possession of Hong Kong was to end in 1997, and the British Nationality Act 1981 was passed in January 1982 (and going into effect in January, 1983), splitting the common citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies into British Citizenship for Britain and Northern Ireland, the Crown Dominions (and ultimately also the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar) and British Dependent Territories Citizenship]] for the remaining colonies.The primary purpose of the Act was to bar non-white British Nationals from Honk Kong from migrating to Britain before the handover, but prohibitions were set in place against all British colonies (at least those with substantial non-white populations)