The 48 newly recognized Papua New Guinea citizens have been reminded that citizenship is a privilege, which comes with rights, responsibilities and duties to the country of Papua New Guinea.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Immigration & Citizenship, John Rosso made this call on the 48 PNG citizenship recipients today.
“I know that for most of the recipients here today, it has been a long journey from the day they first lodged their citizenship application, until today when they will be finally receiving their certificates and approval documents.”
The recipients were interviewed and had their applications deliberated on by the Citizenship Advisory Committee (CAC) in December 2023, and February this year. Of the 48 recipients, 6 are Naturalized Papua New Guineans and 42 are Dual Citizens.
“I am pleased to also make mention that from 6 Naturalisation recipients, there is a Somalian Refugee, Obeid Hussein Ali, who is the first genuine refugee to have successfully completed the Refugee Status Determination processes, and applied for PNG citizenship in 2017, and has now been granted Papua New Guinea citizenship,” said Rosso.
Meantime, Rosso informed that since December 2023, the CAC has managed to deliberate on over 80 applications to date, hence decreasing the backlog of citizenship applications waiting for a CAC Hearing. Currently, over 380 citizenship applications are awaiting a CAC Hearing. This also includes the West Papuan applications.
“The CAC is committed to ensuring that the citizenship process is not delayed but continues as expected, in accordance with its constitutional mandate,” Rosso emphasized.
The efforts of the members of the CAC, Chairman Marsh Narewec and Deputy Chairman Alexander Orme, as well as Dr Eric Kwa were commended at the event.
Acknowledgements were also accorded to Edric Kelai, the NCD ad hoc member who has been very committed and actively supporting the CAC in his role since his appointment to date.