Baghdad revokes Iraqi citizenship of 160 families, citing their Syrian origins

DINA AL-SHIBEEB, AL ARABIYA

The head of al-Qa’im district, in Iraq’s western province of al-Anbar, has confirmed that about 160 families have had
their Iraqi citizenships revoked, citing their Syrian origin as the reason for the action, DPA reported on Sunday. Farhan Aftikhan said that among the people who had their citizenship revoked were government employees and army and police personnel, all of whom had their nationality certificates, food-ration cards, and citizenships annulled by the Iraqi government. He added that these families have been Iraqi citizens for years and hail from the tribes in Anbar province.

While the district’s chief official said the government did not cite a “real” reason for the cancellation of the citizenships, the affected families cited “sectarianism” and pointed out that other Iraqi families are classified as Iranian, Pakistani and Afghani citizens.

Many Iraqi politicians who were exiled during Saddam Hussain’s dictatorship hold western passports and are dual citizenships.

One former Iraqi citizen, who wished to remain anonymous, said when he went to Baghdad to renew his 61-year-old father’s citizenship, and during the process an officer with the rank of a lieutenant in the nationality department destroyed his father’s papers and revoked the entire family’s citizenship.

He added that he doesn’t own papers to prove that he is Syrian, and is now stateless.

Qa’im is located about 380 kilometers from Anbar’s capital of al-Ramadi, and only a fence and a trench separate it from the Syrian of Abu Kamal.

There are about 400,000 people living in the district, and they share tribal chiefs with their Syrian counterparts, as they belong to the same tribes.

During the Iraqi-Iran war, Saddam Hussein expelled hundreds of Shiites because he said their Persian origins made them Iranian subjects.