Citizenship act has deprived almost 2,000 people of Slovak passport

A total of 1,960 people have lost their Slovak passports under the State Citizenship Act in the more than seven years since it took effect on July 17, 2010. This stems from the statistics published by the Interior Ministry on Sunday. Most often, Slovaks lost their Slovak citizenship by acquiring that of the Czech Republic (512 people). Next came people who obtained the citizenship of Germany (464); Austria (281); the United Kingdom (183). Less than 100 people lost their Slovak citizenship by acquiring that of Hungary. Paradoxically, the State Citizenship Act was adopted by the first government of Robert Fico (2006-10) in response to Hungarian legislation that made it possible for ethnic Hungarians living outside Hungary to gain dual citizenship.