Iraqi Nationality Law .. Controversy and criticism to amend it

Taha Al-Ani-Al Jazeera Net

In light of the political crises witnessed by the Iraqi arena and the controversy of the laws passed by the parliament or sought to pass, raised parliamentary efforts on amendments to the Iraqi Nationality Law, a wide debate in the Iraqi arena and popular criticism, amid warnings of the consequences of this proposal and its objectives, and fears of the repercussions of the people may affect them .

The Parliament had ended last Monday the first reading of the draft law of the first amendment to the law of nationality submitted by the Security, Defense and Legal Committees without a decision, in view of the emergence of problems and obstacles in the practical application of the provisions of the Iraqi Nationality Law No. 26 of 2006.

After the parliament session on Monday, popular and parliamentary votes were adopted to include members of the House of Representatives, political parties and parliamentary committees, ending with public anger and warnings of the repercussions of these amendments.

Activists on social networking sites considered the amendment of the law a violation of Iraq's sovereignty and a threat to its demography and destruction of society, amid calls for an end to these attempts.

Controversy and criticism
According to lawyer Firas al-Rubaie, citizenship is granted in two ways, either through blood or home, and Iraq grants citizenship through blood to the father, so if this amendment means a radical change to the law granting Iraqi nationality and thus the total destruction of Iraqi society.

MP Mohammed Iqbal al-Sidli was one of the most prominent opponents of the amendments.

Iqbal said in a statement issued by his press office that the paragraphs included in the amendment of the law facilitated the granting of Iraqi citizenship away from the points made by the Iraqi legislator over the past years to maintain its position, likely to result in significant demographic changes due to grants, .

For his part, a member of the Committee on Security and Defense parliamentary Adnan al-Asadi that the proposal to grant citizenship to foreigners who spent one year in Iraq, "full of bombs."

"The draft amendment of the Iraqi Nationality Law came at the end of the previous parliamentary session and we will not be able to legislate it. Three days ago we read a first reading and created a noisy atmosphere among the Iraqi people," al-Asadi told a news conference in the House of Representatives.

The head of the national parliamentary bloc, Ammar Tohma, said last Monday that the draft amendment of the Nationality Law contained gaps that lead to demographic change, and opens the way and opportunity to grant unknown persons Iraqi nationality.

Clarification
For its part, the Directorate of Civil Status, Passports and Residence of the Ministry of Interior, on Thursday, clarification on some legal provisions for the granting of Iraqi nationality, after it left a wide controversy and criticism of some of these paragraphs.

Where the Directorate confirmed that "an exception was added to the forcibly displaced during the previous regime, and they have transactions in the Directorate of Nationality was not completed because of their deportation and a large number of them was registered in the records of 1957.

She added that after 2003 issued a decision of the Council of Ministers to lift the signal of freezing their restrictions and obtained the identities of civil status and were unable to obtain the certificate of Iraqi citizenship, because of the lack of modern residence for ten years.

The Directorate continued that, for the purpose of redressing this limited group, this exception had been established and had a residence of not less than one year.