ABU DHABI, 10 March 2007 — The Interior Ministry has granted citizenship to 30 families of stateless residents in the United Arab Emirates, the first group to benefit from a promise made last October, the official WAM news agency reported yesterday.
“The ministry started on Thursday to hand over registration certificates to an initial group giving rise automatically to obtaining Emirati nationality,” it said without giving any figures for those receiving the certificates. The naturalized group represented the first batch out of 1,294 people eligible for citizenship.
According to a ministry source, around 10,000 stateless people — mainly originating from Iran, Asia or Zanzibar — have registered for naturalization.
Last October, Interior Minister Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al-Nahayan promised naturalization to those who “were living in the country before the proclamation of the Federation” on Dec. 2, 1971.
