A surge in citizenship applications

Recently, in the government controlled daily Nation newspaper, a number of notices for Citizenship applications have been registered. Whilst, we the true Seychellois citizens have gotten used to these notices, it is time to question the legitimacy of some these applications. We need to ask the leaders of our Government and our National Assembly members to put our citizenship acquisition programme under greater scrutiny with the aim of eliminating the blatant abuse and cheap politics played with our sovereignty.

For example, on Friday 7th September, a person named Mavji Karsan Bhudia applied for citizenship under the special circumstances section, stating the reason he is qualified to apply for citizenship is “… length of working in Seychelles”. The applicant is employed as a mason under a Gainful Occupation Permit (GOP).

On Monday 10th September, we saw two applications that are more interesting. The first is a “Senior Project Manager” from Sri Lanka who gives the reason from applying as “... to offer my continuous contribution for the national employment capacity development in Seychelles by shaping today’s managers for tomorrow’s challenges.” He or She (we could not decipher from the name) also states, “my kids are interested to stay in Seychelles because they were born in Seychelles”.

The second application is from Mr. Ahmed Saeed, the well-known banker and Managing Director of Nouvobanq who originates from Pakistan. His special circumstance, which he says qualifies him for citizenship is, his “23 years in Seychelles”. Thus, while many of us may know who Mr. Saeed is, after all, he has been running Nouvobanq and its predecessor, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), how may Seychellois know the other two applicants.

Are new citizens being created to gain votes?

Many years ago, former President James Mancham suggested that anyone applying for citizenship should also post a picture and other personal details, such as date of birth, in the newspaper with their notice of application. At least then, we would be able to identify the applicant so that we could genuinely comment as to whether we had an objection to that person becoming a citizen. After all, how can any law-abiding citizen comment if he/she does not even know who is applying? Of course, Mancham’s legitimate suggestion fell on deaf ears, although it may be time to broach the subject matter once again.

As can be derived from the above mentioned applications and the thousands of others that have come before the Immigration Department over the past 3 decades, it is evident that the granting of citizenship has become a national joke and suspiciously a whiff of corruption attached to it as well. As our Seychellois nationality is taken for granted, are new citizens being created just to fill the short-term employment needs of our country? Is this a justifiable reason to grant citizenship?

On the other hand, is it a political machination to add more voters to the dwindling SPPF register? While other countries are making it more difficult to gain citizenship, the SPPF Government seems happy handing passports to these new “red citizens” in exchange for their votes and allegiance to the party. The abuse has been going on for decades now. While the previous passport-selling schemes brought much international negative press to our country, these new citizens pose a threat to our own Seychellois heritage and will surely change our future destiny especially at the ballot box in future elections. The compelling argument can therefore be made that the granting of citizenship to these types of special circumstance applicants are part of the bigger picture of the SPPF’s attempt to sway election results in their favour, since the applications reasons are so dubious. No thought has been given to the Seychellois heritage or the impact of these immigrants to our shores.

New citizens get two bites at the cherry

No one denies that Seychelles today needs skilled workers, be it in the construction, tourism, medical, educational, fishing, accounting or information technology sectors. However, working in our country under a GOP contract should not be an avenue for citizenship for guest workers. In many Gulf States today, GOP workers remain employed under contract for many years, but they can never apply to become citizens of these countries. The laws do not make provisions for them to do so. Seychelles because of its small size simply cannot afford to allow every GOP applicant to become a Seychelles Citizen. The guest worker rights and obligations are comprehensively detailed in their contract of employment but that must never be extended to a de facto right Citizenship. Being employed in Seychelles even for an extended period does not amount to “special circumstances” for a foreigner to qualify for Citizenship.

The Special circumstances in our view, was meant to apply to

a) a bona fide investor who has brought real economic benefits to the country;

b) a world famous individual who loves our country and who, by his or her association with it brings international prestige to the reputation of our country;

c) finally, an individual who has been given asylum for legitimate reasons but who, after many years among us, cannot reasonably return home to enjoy the citizenship of his or her country of origin.

Persons who have been married to a natural born Seychellois, and whose relationships have endured the passage of time too should have the privilege of our citizenship if they have lived among us for a reasonable length of time. Being employed as a foreigner on a contract, such as that of attorney general of the Seychelles does not provide justification of special circumstances for his children, though born in Seychelles while he is here on a contract, to become citizens. Yet, Government has refused citizenships to the former and even hounded the spouses out of the country while the latter has been welcomed with open arms. The mere fact that it has become so easy to gain citizenships in Seychelles for obscure and ridiculous reasons shows that this Government is not looking out for the best interest of our nation and the future of its natural citizens, but prefer to favour foreign workers to our own Seychellois citizens.

Furthermore, when one has received citizenship, be it that one is from China, Europe, India or Pakistan, one now enjoys all the benefits earmarked for Seychelles citizens, plus one is still entitled to the benefits from one’s country of origin as a dual citizen. Thus, while most Seychellois have to apply for a visa to visit Europe, India or China, these “new” citizens can travel freely to and from their countries of origin. They can repatriate, hold as well as travel with foreign exchange with no fear of retribution or being sent to jail, and they can enjoy the medical, educational and pension plans of our country as well as those of their home countries at the same time. In short, we are granting special privileges as citizens to a category of foreigners, privileges not available natural born Seychellois as defined under our Constitution.

It is high time for the legitimate people of Seychelles to ask its Government to stop this ludicrous practice of giving our citizenship away to every person who applies and to invent special circumstances to grant them citizenships. Yes, Seychelles need experienced doctors, teachers, bankers, accountants, hotel workers and probably even gardeners and house cleaners, but why must we give these workers citizenship after they have worked or even continue to work for us? Why can’t they work in Seychelles and enjoy our hospitality for as long as they are needed, and then let them leave when their contracts have expired? Our country belongs to us and citizenship is a gift to the legitimate Seychellois under our Constitution. We must stop prostituting our country and our nationality. And remember, who would pass up a chance of earning a passport as a fully fledged citizen of the most beautiful islands in the world? Surely not a banker, a carpenter, a mason, a senior project manager nor the children of a foreigner appointed Attorney General under a fixed contract of employment!

The Constitution says foreigners are not citizens

A natural citizen of Seychelles is explicitly defined by the Constitution (Chapter II). The Constitution also explicitly sets out in plain language who are not citizens of Seychelles as well as who are eligible to be citizens of Seychelles if they were not born in Seychelles, either before or on the day the Constitution came into force. The Citizenship Act, passed by the SPPF controlled National Assembly in 1994 needs to be revised for its inconsistency with the Constitution, specially the power bestowed on the Minister to refuse a person, who is eligible to be a citizen under the provisions of Constitution, citizenship. If one has proven that one is eligible under the Constitution to be a citizen, the Act, which gives effect to the provisions of the Constitution, the Minister is obliged bestow the citizenship as a matter of right not as a privilege to be dispensed by the Government.

The special circumstance provision of the Citizenship Act was not meant to bestow a right to persons on long-term employment to become de jure citizens. These individuals come to Seychelles under Gainful Occupation Permits (GOP). They are hired for a specified term and occupation, and granted extensions to continue to work in Seychelles because their skills are still needed. While they are here, they are most of the time housed, fed, given transportation by their employer and above all else, they are paid a salary, which they have negotiated for and duly accepted as a term agreement. Indeed, they are a privileged bunch while here because the benefits they enjoy are not available to the Seychellois citizen when they have acquired the skills of these foreigners. In fact, Government policy today discriminates against the skilled Seychellois in favour of the skilled foreigner in terms of privileges and other benefits of employment.

It is also time for the Opposition to make it part of its political agenda to close this gap in the Immigration Act, one which the SPPF have milked over the years to create thousands of “new Seychellois” from this pool of GOP workers. The Opposition must also consider retroactively voiding these passports when they take the reigns of the Government. They should also cancel the passports issued to drug dealers, organized crime bosses, dissidents and other criminals who gained citizenship through the EDA program and the passport-selling scheme. Caveat emptor (buyer beware)!

It is therefore time for the Seychelles Government to act and to protect its real Seychellois citizens from the influx of immigrants and more importantly it is time to stop the abuse of our Constitution. In fact, we should make it easier for foreign workers to come in and to help us enrich our nation, just like Dubai and other regional states have done so successfully. However, let us protect our sovereignty by closing our current, wide-open citizenship door. The motto should be “Workers YES, Citizenship NO”!

Contributed.

Editor’s note: The opinions contain in this article are those of its authors. It has been published to encourage legitimate debate on this important issue.