Vanuatu’s citizenship by investment programs have grabbed headlines over the last week chiefly for two reasons: First, because the government had signed an exclusive agreement with one of its Master Agents to handle
applications from stateless investors. Second, because the country’s Deputy Prime Minister told Radio New Zealand that the government was preparing to issue
yellow passports to those naturalizing via investment (as opposed to the ordinary green one issued to natural-born ni-Vanuatu), a statement that drew fervent reactions from the RCBI-community.
In a
press statement issued today, prepared especially for IMI, the Chairman of Vanuatu’s Citizenship Commission, Ronald Warsal, for the first time addresses directly several recent controversies regarding the program, the administration of which he took over earlier this year.
“Questionable opinion, speculation, and bias presented as fact”
In it, Warsal explains that the dual citizenship programs of Vanuatu are a legacy of the erstwhile administration and subject to continual review and adjustment. He also indicated that, while the government welcomed constructive debate, it rejected “questionable opinion, speculation, and bias presented as fact, with the aim of undermining the Programs […], which he called “attempts to discredit the firmly founded and secured rights and protections of our highly valued citizens[…]”
