Bulgaria revoked citizenship of 17 after scrapping ‘golden passports’
After the National Assembly abolished “golden passports” – citizenship in return for investment – the Bulgarian citizenship of 17 people was revoked, caretaker Justice Minister Krum Zarkov told Parliament on May 4.
The National Assembly approved the changes to the Citizenship Act on March 24 2022, as The Sofia Globe reported at the time.
Zarkov said that of those whose Bulgarian citizenship was revoked, four were from Egypt, four from Russia, four from Kazakhstan, three from China, two from Pakistan and one from Jordan.
Before Parliament abolished the “golden passports” system, it had emerged that in several cases, those granted citizenship on the basis of investment had failed to make the investment.
The State Agency for National Security and other state institutions were continuing checks “and any violations found will trigger the appropriate actions,” Zarkov told the House.
“Regarding the members the families of these individuals are assessed on a case-by-case basis to see if the application for citizenship was made on a non-existent legal basis. The problem with the golden passports has been resolved,” he said.
(Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
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