Daily Star - Interior Ministry processes overdue nationality applications

Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: The Interior Ministry sorted out some 7,000 nationality applications dating back to 1968, according to a statement it released on Wednesday. The applications concerned more than 24,000 people and the ones that met necessary requirements were referred to the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
The Interior Ministry has so far completed 4,241 applications out of a total of 7,000 while the Department for Personal Status has been working on the others, “despite severe shortages in personnel and the complete lack of computers,” the statement said.
The Interior Ministry’s work was an implementation of law number 67/1968 and came in accordance with the obligations mentioned in the current and the previous policy statements.
Lebanon’s 1925 nationality law, still in operation till today, has been the subject of controversy in recent years because it is seen as discriminatory: it allows men to pass on their nationality to non-Lebanese wives and children one year after their marriage is registered, but prohibits Lebanese women married to non-Lebanese from doing the same.
Furthermore, over 80,000 people live in Lebanon stateless, i.e. without a nationality, according to the UNDP. Thousands of those without legal status in Lebanon are the children of Lebanese women married to non-Lebanese men.
Statelessness is forbidden by international law but remains a great humanitarian problem in Lebanon and the world. – The Daily Star