10 foreigners granted Afghanistan’s citizenship

KABUL (Pajhwok): At least 10 foreigners have been granted Afghanistan’s citizenship while 102 others applied for leaving the country in the past six months, the Ministry of Justice said on Tuesday.

During the period, seven foreigners applied for Afghanistan’s citizenship while 10 such cases had been finalised by Ministry of Justice last year, a statement from MoI said.

These 10 citizens of different countries were granted the citizenship of Afghanistan after finalization of their cases by the Justice Ministry and issuance of a presidential decree.

On the other hand, during this period, 102 people applied for relinquishing Afghanistan’s citizenship after they were given nationality of other countries.

After a review of their applications by the relevant commission, the cases are being processed by the Ministry of Justice.

In the first half of the ongoing year, 178 cases of Afghan citizenship relinquishment cases of the current year and last year are finalized and after the approval of cabinet the president have issued them.

The main reason for the renunciation of Afghanistan’s citizenship is laws and regulations of countries where Afghans are residing and are willing to get their citizenship.

These countries grant citizenship only when applicants renounce their prior citizenship. The applicants cannot have the citizenship of two countries at a time.

The process for attainment and relinquishment of nationality is time- consuming and involves sending applications to security institutions, the Ministry of Finance and NSIA. The objective is to ensure they are not involved in crime and the verification of their identities.

“To avoid disturbing the applications, we expect the relevant authorities to cooperate with us on speeding up the processing of applications,” the MoI statement said.

sa/mud