VILNIUS, Apr 11, BNS–Jews and their descendants living in Israel and South Africa who left Lithuania in the interwar period have been receiving negative answers about restoration of Lithuanian citizenship for some time now.
Since November of 2015 the Lithuanian Migration Department has rejected the majority of applications for restoration of citizenship for people who left Lithuania in the 1920-1939 period and their descendants.
Under Lithuanian citizenship law, people who left Lithuania before March 11 of 1990 and acquired citizenship in a different country can be citizens of Lithuania, as can their descendants. About 1,000 Jews living in South Africa have taken advantage of the legal provision, but the process of citizenship restoration was suspended for some people in mid-2015.
In their negative decisions, migration specialists cite case law to the effect people who left Lithuania before March 11 of 1990 should include former Lithuanian citizens who fled the country for political reasons, resistance to occupational regimes or persecution by the regime.
“The treatment has changed. This applies to those who left Lithuania in 1918-1939. The discussion is that there was no violence, repressions or anything like that at the time, therefore, the departures cannot be considered an attempt to escape threats,” foreign minister Linas Linkevičius told BNS.
The minister refused to give his opinion on the situation because examination was still underway.
“I am aware of the problem, some people are unhappy,” Linkevičius said.
Evelina Gudzinskaitė, acting chief of the Lithuanian Migration Department, said the decision to revise the practice of dual citizenship came after 2013 and 2014 rulings from Lithuania’s Supreme Administrative Court.
She emphasized dual citizenship was granted to Litvaks–people of Lithuanian origin–who fled occupied Lithuania, and their descendants. She said migration specialists also reject applications from ethnic Lithuanians who emigrated in the interwar period.
Negative answers constitute a minor portion of applications. Last year 488 applications from Israeli citizens to keep their dual citizenship were approved and 54 were rejected.
“This is an arbitrary practice, not an interpretation of constitutional law. This rejects all the Lithuanian ideals of March 11,” signatory to the 1990 Independence Act conservative MP Emanuelis Zingeris said.
Zingeris told BNS he had heard inquiries on the topic during a recent visit in Israel.
According to the 1923 general census, nearly 154,000 Jews lived in Lithuania minus the Vilnius region which was separated from it. In the interwar years many emigrated to Palestine, South Africa and the United States. About 25,000 Jews left Lithuania in the 1923-1939 period.
