339 obtained Maltese citizenship through naturalisation in 2022

339 people, 284 of whom were men, were granted Maltese citizenship in 2022 through naturalisation, information tabled in parliament shows.

A year earlier, 421 Maltese citizenships were granted through the same process.

Replying to a parliamentary question by Nationalist MP Albert Buttigieg on the number of people who obtained citizenship through naturalisation, Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri also said 1,372 such citizenship applications were denied in 2022.  

“This denial had no effect on these people's immigration status as long as they had the right to remain in the country,” added the minister.

Russia, Ukraine, Israel, and Palestine were all included in the 105-country list of those who obtained Maltese citizenship through naturalisation.

Withdrawn citizenship

In a reply to a separate parliamentary question by Buttigieg on the number of people who had their citizenship revoked, Camilleri said no one had their citizenship withdrawn in 2022.

Buttigieg's question did not make reference to any particular way citizenship would have originally been acquired, which puts into question Camilleri's reply since in April 2022, the government said it will be revoking two Maltese passports owned by two Russian individuals who were sanctioned by the United States treasury department.

The people in question were Evgeniya Vladimirovna Bernova and Nikita Aleksandrovich Sobolev.

Camilleri said no citizenship was revoked between 2012 and 2018.

In 2019, four passports belonging to three Egyptian men and one Syrian man, were revoked. One of the Egyptians was Mustafa Abdel-Wadood. He was pleading guilty to charges of misappropriation of funds in July 2019, and Malta started the process to revoke his citizenship a month after.

In 2020, a record-breaking seven people had their Maltese citizenship revoked. Four of these were people from St Kitts & Nevis (two males and two females.) The rest were all males, an Algerian, a Tunisian and a Chinese.

The last three people who had their citizenship revoked were three males in 2021, one from Tunisia, another from Syria and the last one from Russia.

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