Comorian passport

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Comorian passport
Comorian citizenship

The Comorian passport is issued to citizens of the

Henley visa restrictions index.[1]

The

stateless people (including dissidents).[2][3]

The Comoros Island passport sales scheme

Further information: Comoros passport sales scandal

The Comoros Island passport sales scheme was created in 2006 by former businessman

Bashar Kiwan and the then president of the Comoros Abdallah Sambi and stayed on course with his successor Ikililou Dhoinine
.

The citizenship by investment program was presented as a bilateral solution to achieve the dual objectives of developing the infrastructure of the Comoros Islands and "solving" the stateless resident issue in the

Kiwan and the entourage of both former presidents embezzled more than $45 million of funds as the country saw no money that went towards any development plan to better the country. It was also discovered that passports were sold through unofficial channels to any individual at the right price.[4] [5]

The official database showed that nearly 48,000 foreigners – including mostly Bidoons - received passports, about 6,000 more than the official number approved by the president, highlighting the scale of sales outside the official channels. The first phase of the scheme, under Sambi, who was in power from 2006 to 2011, was meant to earn Comoros $200 million in return for giving citizenship to 4,000 stateless families. Emirati officials have stated that they had paid the money in full but the report said there was little trace of the money in Comoros public accounts. [5][6]

Today,

Comoro government are accused of embezzlement, fraud and misuse of public funds and are calling for criminal action against all involved parties.[7][8] Major-General Mazen Al-Jarrah, Kuwait's former interior ministry assistant undersecretary who had announced the Comoros Islands scheme in Kuwait,[9] was subsequently convicted in February 2021 for receiving bribes for facilitating human trafficking.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Global Ranking - Visa Restriction Index 2017" (PDF). Henley & Partners. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  2. ^ "Special report: Ten years on, the UAE's stateless people reflect on how life has improved and on the challenges ahead". The National. 5 September 2018. Retrieved 17 April 2019.
  3. ^ "The controversial plan to give Kuwait's stateless people citizenship of a tiny, poor African island - The Washington Post". The Washington Post.
  4. ^ "Kuwait's stateless Bidun 'offered Comoros citizenship'". BBC News. 2014-11-10. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  5. ^ a b AfricaNews (2018-08-21). "Ex-Comoros president Sambi charged over passport scheme". Africanews. Archived from the original on 2018-08-22. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  6. ISSN 0190-8286
    . Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  7. ^ "Comoros ex-presidents embroiled in passport sale scandal". France 24. 2018-04-10. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  8. ^ Ahmed, David Lewis, Ali Amir (2018-03-23). "Exclusive: Comoros passport scheme was unlawful, abused by 'mafia' networks - report". Reuters. Retrieved 2021-03-08.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ "Kuwait says stateless to be offered Comoros citizenship". news.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
  10. ^ "Kuwait: Tougher penalties sought in human trafficking case involving Bangladeshi MP". gulfnews.com. 9 February 2021. Retrieved 2021-03-25.

External links

Media related to Passports of the Comoros at Wikimedia Commons

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