Gov’t lawmakers challenge delays in citizenship for migrants
Fifty-one lawmakers with the ruling SYRIZA party have requested explanations from the Interior Ministry over complaints of lengthy delays in the granting of citizenship to migrants.
The leftist MPs cited bureaucratic obstacles that are preventing thousands of people who are entitled to Greek citizenship being left in limbo for extended periods of time as their applications are processed.
One of the biggest obstacles, the lawmakers note, is the process of correcting mistakes made on birth certificates and other official identification documents, which needs to go through judicial channels and can take months to complete.
They also stress that delays in clearing a backlog of applications from nearly a decade ago are also stalling the application of a 2015 law granting citizenship to children born in Greece to migrant parents or migrants who have been in the Greek school system for a certain number of years.
Their complaint comes after the Interior Ministry last week admitted that only 73 percent of 113,724 citizenship applications submitted between March 2010 and April 2018, under three separate laws, have been resolved.
