More than 3,500 passports issued by the government of ousted President Omar al-Bashir to
foreign residents were revoked by Sudan’s interim authorities, the Interior Ministry announced on Thursday.
Sudanese media reported that the vast majority of those affected were citizens of Arab
countries, especially Syria, who paid $10,000 a head for citizenship to Bashir aid workers.
“On the interior ministry’s recommendation, the chairman of (Sudan’s top executive body) the Sovereignty Council, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has decided to withdraw Sudanese citizenship from 3,548 naturalised residents,” the ministry said on Twitter.
“This decision was taken in the light of negative medical or security reports about the individuals concerned or because, in some cases, they obtained citizenship without meeting the necessary conditions.”
The ministry added that other naturalisations approved by the
Bashir regime were still being investigated by a committee.
In another move aimed at the Syrian influx after the country’s civil war broke out in 2011, the ministry
announced that Syrian nationals will now be allowed to receive visas in advance rather than on arrival as before.
Sudanese media reported that Sudan is currently home to an estimated 150,000 Syrians, many of
whom hope to use the nation as a stepping stone to a better life elsewhere.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
