Citizenship Act Has Deprived Almost 1,650 People of Slovak Passport

A total of 1,648 people have lost their Slovak passports under the State Citizenship Act since it took effect six and a half years ago in 2010, according to figures released by the Interior Ministry last week. The law prohibits people to have citizenship of two countries at the same time. The largest portion; 437 people, decided to acquire Czech citizenship, followed by 396 who obtained German citizenship and 236 who chose Austrian citizenship. The State Citizenship Act was adopted by the first government of Robert Fico (2006-10) in response to Hungarian legislation which made it possible for ethnic Hungarians living outside Hungary to gain dual citizenship. There have been several attempts to mitigate the law since its adoption, but all have failed. As of February 2015, the Interior Ministry began returning Slovak citizenship to people who lost it after accepting foreign citizenship for permanent residence in a foreign country. Slovak citizenship is restored through the use of exemptions.