Osmanović: No one will be stripped of BiH citizenship, people clearly don't know the subject matter

The Ministry of Civil Affairs of BiH issued a public call in October last year for citizens who obtained BiH citizenship through naturalization from April 6, 1992, to January 1, 2006. The deadline for applications expires on October 5, and a very small number of citizens have responded to the review, but an assumption has been unnecessarily created in the public that those who did not respond will be removed from BiH citizenship, warns Adil Osmanović, Minister of Civil Affairs of BiH in an interview with the BiH news agency Patria.

- People clearly don't know the subject matter. The law tasked the Ministry of Civil Affairs with reviewing naturalized citizens. And the Ministry is doing that continuously. Confusion has clearly arisen here due to the publication of the public call, which lasts for a year and is expiring soon. Now, someone has forwarded this as information that after the expiration of this public call, those who did not apply will lose their citizenship, which is not true. We are trying to get the addresses and information about these people, because there are about 20,000 such citizens who obtained citizenship through Vienna, Munich, and now we cannot reach them. We don't know where they are, whether they are here in BiH or elsewhere. Now we are trying to reach them - says Osmanović.

According to the call from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, all naturalized citizens of BiH are obliged to submit a birth certificate from their place of birth, a certificate of citizenship of the country where the person was born, i.e., their origin, a birth certificate from the municipality in BiH where the person is registered, as well as a certificate of movement and registered residence, and all personal BiH documents they possess.

We are only doing the job that the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH has assigned us. We are looking to do it in the most efficient way possible to reach these people. Therefore, no one will be stripped of their citizenship. It is important for us to retain as many BiH citizens as possible.

- We see that in accordance with the results of the last census, the number of citizens in BiH has also decreased - says Osmanović.

The Association of Citizens of Origin from Sandžak even accused Minister Osmanović that this review is his unilateral public call.

- The call applies to everyone, and in the last six months, we have had a lot of noise in Krajina from Serbs from Croatia who believed that it was directed against them. But it is not, this is the third public call that the Ministry of Civil Affairs has issued in this manner. This is not the third review as someone is presenting it. This is the third call inviting naturalized citizens to come forward. Someone who has already completed this cannot be reviewed for the third time - added Osmanović.