The island state sells citizenship for 105 thousand dollars: Russians do not bother

Citizenship of Nauru, a small island in the Pacific Ocean, can be obtained for 105 thousand dollars. The initiative of the “Golden Passport” is aimed at raising funds to combat climate change.

According to CNN, the government claims that the sale of citizenship will help raise funds for a plan for the resettlement of 90% of the island’s population (about 12,500 people) on a hill. The state of Nauru is at risk due to an increase in sea level, storm nags and erosion of the coast in connection with global warming.

Passports will cost from 105 thousand dollars, but will not be available to people with certain criminal criminal records. Citizenship of Nauru provides visa -free access to 89 countries, including the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UAE. Experts believe that the new passport owners are unlikely to visit Nauru himself, but citizenship will give them the opportunity to lead a “global life”.

For Nauru, the passport sale program is the opportunity to ensure the future of the island, which is in a difficult situation and has a difficult story. Since the beginning of the 1900s, active phosphate mining has been conducted on the island. The landscape was destroyed by miners, as a result of which the center of the island became almost barren, turned into sharp rocks. For this reason, about 80% of the territory has become unsuitable for life, and now most residents are concentrated along the coast, under the threat of increasing sea level, which rises faster here than the average on the planet.

Nauru expects to receive about $ 5.6 million from the program in the first year, followed by an increase of to $ 42 million annually. The program will expand gradually, as possible consequences or negative effects are assessed.

The success of the program will depend on how the income enters the country and what they will be spent on, experts say. This includes control and transparency in the expenditure of funds, as well as the prevention of situations where people who were usually denied citizenship illegally pay officials for its receipt. The government states that the program verification will be tough and will exclude people from countries recognized by the UN as high -risk regions, including Russia and North Korea.