Solving the 'bidoon' problem
January 4, 2016 1:24 PM Subscribe
When citizenship can be bought and sold In 2007, a Syrian French businessman named Bashar Kiwan went to the Comoro Islands with his team. They proposed to the government that they could sell passports to the Emirates in exchange for a lot of money that would then go toward infrastructure and development. The Comoros were so broke that they decided to go ahead with this plan. It is unclear how many people have these passports, but some say up to 100,000 stateless people are now Comoro Island citizens despite never having been there.
Isolated volcanic islands offshore the most remote and undeveloped part of Mozambique. God, you know you are in deep shit when that seems an attractive alternative.
posted by Bee'sWing at 2:03 PM on January 4, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by Bee'sWing at 2:03 PM on January 4, 2016 [6 favorites]
Perhaps not well-known, given the apparent surprise expressed by the writer, but you can buy a US Green Card for $1M and jump to citizenship, afterwards.
It's pretty common, and not all that shocking, really, considering that immigration and naturalization are important for keeping the economic systems of most developed nations up and running. Indeed, the reverse of this ("brain drain" etc.) causes countries to close their borders.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 2:29 PM on January 4, 2016 [7 favorites]
It's pretty common, and not all that shocking, really, considering that immigration and naturalization are important for keeping the economic systems of most developed nations up and running. Indeed, the reverse of this ("brain drain" etc.) causes countries to close their borders.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 2:29 PM on January 4, 2016 [7 favorites]
So the Emirates were worried enough about stateless people to buy them foreign passports, but not worried enough to give them their own. Just needed to enable them to leave the country without having to let them back in, I suppose.
Can't blame the Comoros, and the reduction of statelessness is in general a good thing, but I'm surprised there isn't any international convention that makes this impossible.
posted by Segundus at 2:44 PM on January 4, 2016
Can't blame the Comoros, and the reduction of statelessness is in general a good thing, but I'm surprised there isn't any international convention that makes this impossible.
posted by Segundus at 2:44 PM on January 4, 2016
After reading about a sailing families adventure "checking in" on a round the world cruise I wonder what the response would be at the "boarder" if one of the passport holders tried to enter/immigrate?
posted by sammyo at 3:06 PM on January 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by sammyo at 3:06 PM on January 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
Many substantial Western countries have deals like the US' green card one. Australia does, or used to, and a while ago they had to tighten it up: it turned out that our real-estate bubble had raised property prices to the point where you could qualify for permanent residence (leading to citizenship) just by buying a house.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:29 PM on January 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:29 PM on January 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm surprised there isn't any international convention that makes this impossible.
The one you might be thinking of is the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. It obliges state parties to grant citizenship to children born within their borders when those children are not entitled to nationality of any other state. As with many human rights conventions, the number of MENA country signatories is very small - in this case only Israel and Libya. UAE isn't a member of this or even the less-expansive 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. Which isn't much of a surprise considering their accession status on other UN human rights treaties.
posted by 1adam12 at 5:08 PM on January 4, 2016 [3 favorites]
The one you might be thinking of is the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. It obliges state parties to grant citizenship to children born within their borders when those children are not entitled to nationality of any other state. As with many human rights conventions, the number of MENA country signatories is very small - in this case only Israel and Libya. UAE isn't a member of this or even the less-expansive 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. Which isn't much of a surprise considering their accession status on other UN human rights treaties.
posted by 1adam12 at 5:08 PM on January 4, 2016 [3 favorites]
Yeah, I was going to say, this isn't unique to poorer countries: just about every country does this, they just dress it up in nicer language of "investment".
posted by divabat at 6:34 PM on January 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by divabat at 6:34 PM on January 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
The FPP article mentioned an EU country; does anyone know which one(s) they're referring to? And also, I think that there's a bit of a difference between getting an investment green card and straight-up getting citizenship right away.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:11 PM on January 4, 2016
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:11 PM on January 4, 2016
@Halloween Jack: I'm betting it's Cyprus. It's an EU country and the only one that's so open about citizenship by investment.
posted by redct at 9:37 PM on January 4, 2016
posted by redct at 9:37 PM on January 4, 2016
You can buy into the EU via Malta. The going rate today is €650,000, the same as it was in 2013.
posted by brushtailedphascogale at 11:27 PM on January 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by brushtailedphascogale at 11:27 PM on January 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
Where is the cheapest place to buy citizenship? (BBC News)
posted by brushtailedphascogale at 11:29 PM on January 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by brushtailedphascogale at 11:29 PM on January 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
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posted by a complicated history at 2:01 PM on January 4, 2016 [3 favorites]