SUVA (Daily Post/PINA) — 563 foreigners obtained Fiji citizenship between 1999 and 2001, more than half of them Chinese and Indians, immigration figures reveal.
Daily Post Statistics from the Ministry of Immigration showed that 173 people were granted citizenship in 1999; 100 in 2000, and 290 last year.
Chinese nationals topped the list getting citizenship with 229 during the past three years. Indians followed with 116.
Others included people from Australia, 70; Kiribati, 51; South Korea, 11; Taiwan, 10; United Kingdom, 7; Tonga, 7; Tuvalu, 5; Sri Lanka, 5; Samoa, 4; and Japan, 4.
Other new Fiji citizens came from France, New Zealand, Nauru, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Portugal, Vanuatu, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nigeria, Thailand and Singapore.
The ministry said all those granted citizenship had been done so in accordance with the 1997 Constitution.
People who had married a Fiji citizen and then qualified for citizenship numbered 29 in 1999, 31 in 2000 and 65 in 2001.
Three adults who were former Fiji citizens came back and reclaimed their citizenship, the figures indicated.
